Final answer:
Salvage anthropology was chiefly about collecting cultural artifacts from indigenous peoples, rather than protecting their rights to practice their traditions and maintain control over their resources.
Step-by-step explanation:
The student has asked whether salvage anthropology had the goal of saving cultures from assimilation by protecting peoples' rights to practice their cultural traditions, speak their language, and control their natural resources. The answer to this question is false. Salvage anthropology was an effort primarily concerned with collecting material objects, stories, language lists, and ethnographies from Indigenous peoples. It was based on the belief that these cultures were going extinct, and the goal was to preserve artifacts rather than to actively protect the rights of people to maintain their cultural practices.