Healing Through Repatriation: the Debates and Diplomacy Behind the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act
Bumps in the Road
"Why does it have to take so long? Why don't they just give us the bones back? It seems pretty simple."
~ Judi Morgan, Executive Director of the Nebraska Commission on Indian Affairs
"As we reported in July 2010, federal agencies have not yet fully complied with all of the requirements of NAGPRA. Specifically, we found that while the eight key federal agencies generally prepared their summaries and inventories on time, they had not fully complied with other NAGPRA requirements."
~ Committee on Indian Affairs
"There is no such thing as an unaffiliated remain. Unaffiliated is just a fancy scientific term to make us work harder to get them."
~ Richard Black, Sac and Fox representative
NAGPRA fails to require museums to repatriate remains and cultural objects to non-federally recognized tribes. Many Native American tribes have yet to achieve federal recognition and therefore NAGPRA does not apply to them. While some museums voluntarily repatriated objects to unrecognized groups, such cases are rare.
"Lenape Nation of Pennsylvania member Rick Quiet Hawk Welker, who has been fighting for federal recognition, photographed at a powwow at Mauch Chunk Lake." Kevin York, 2021
"Tony A. (Naschio) Johnson, center, tribal council chairman of the Chinook Nation, beats a drum as he leads tribal members and supporters to the federal courthouse in Tacoma on Jan. 6, 2020, as they continue efforts to regain federal recognition." Ted S. Warren / The Associated Press, 2020
"The flag of the Chinook Nation is displayed as tribal members and supporters gather outside the federal courthouse in Tacoma to bring attention to their effort to regain federal recognition on Jan. 6, 2020." Ted S. Warren / The Associated Press, 2020
British Museum's North America Galleries. Google / British Museum 2015
Since only museums receiving federal funding must comply with NAGPRA, privately held collections and foreign museums are exempt from any repatriation requirements. Federally owned land is subject to NAGPRA, but privately owned land is not. Therefore, when Native American remains and cultural objects are found on private land, they are not required to be repatriated.
"Private collection of Native American artifacts of Indiana man Don Miller." Federal Bureau of Investigation, 2014
"Human remains with no cultural affiliation that are pending in the NAGPRA process." Denver University Museum of Anthropology, 2021
A major shortcoming of NAGPRA is its use of the term cultural affiliation to define which present-day tribes may claim historical remains and objects. While many museums and archaeologists feared that the definition was too broad, and that too many objects would be claimed under NAGPRA as culturally affiliated, many tribes felt that the definition was too narrow. Debates such as this have prevented NAGPRA from working as intended.
"At the current rate we are going, it’s going to be another seven decades before all 116,000 human remains are addressed."
~ Chip Colwell, Author and Former Senior Curator of Anthropology at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science