{"id":32758,"date":"2023-10-10T19:10:42","date_gmt":"2023-10-10T23:10:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/?p=32758"},"modified":"2023-10-10T19:15:28","modified_gmt":"2023-10-10T23:15:28","slug":"report-confirms-slow-progress-on-repatriation-of-ancestors-and-sacred-items","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/2023\/10\/10\/report-confirms-slow-progress-on-repatriation-of-ancestors-and-sacred-items\/","title":{"rendered":"Report confirms slow progress on repatriation of ancestors and sacred items"},"content":{"rendered":" \"NAGPRA\"<\/a>
Supported by a federal NAGPRA grant, tribal nations, History Colorado, Colorado State University, Colorado Department of Natural Resources and the Colorado Commission of Indian Affairs participated in a reburial ceremony in Colorado in June 2016. Photo courtesy History Colorado<\/a><\/figcaption>\r\n
Report confirms slow progress on repatriation of ancestors and sacred items<\/div>\r\n
Tuesday, October 10, 2023<\/div>\r\n
By Acee Agoyo<\/div>\r\n
Indianz.Com<\/div>\r\n

<\/p>\r\nIt’s been more than 30 years since the passage of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act<\/a> (NAGPRA) but federal agencies and museums are still far behind in returning ancestral remains and cultural property to their rightful places.\r\n

<\/P>\r\nA snapshot report<\/a> released by the Government Accountability Office<\/a> (GAO) on Tuesday shows just how NAGPRA’s promises to Native peoples are going unfulfilled. Since 1990, fewer than half of the 208,698 ancestral remains being held by agencies and museums have gone through the complete NAGPRA process, according to official data.\r\n

<\/P>\r\nAnd when it comes to the 2,619,951 sacred items being held by agencies and museums, the record is better — but the GAO identifies ongoing “challenges” in complying with NAGPRA. According to the report, issued a day after President Joe Biden declared Indigenous Peoples’ Day, nearly a third of funerary objects haven’t gone through the complete process.\r\n

<\/p>\r\n“The program\u2019s 2022 report notes that these agencies and museums have not completed the NAGPRA regulatory process for 52 percent of human remains and 29 percent of associated funerary objects,” the GAO report states.\r\n

<\/P>\r\n“Until the process is complete, the items are not available for repatriation,” the report adds, confirming that American Indians, Alaska Natives and Native Hawaiians are still being denied their ancestral and cultural heritages, some 33 years after NAGPRA’s passage in 1990.\r\n

<\/p>\r\n

Native American Priorities: Protection and Repatriation of Human Remains and Other Cultural Items https:\/\/t.co\/mQnJNNLEbU<\/a><\/p>— U.S. GAO (@USGAO) October 10, 2023<\/a><\/blockquote>