{"id":5014,"date":"2020-11-23T12:33:49","date_gmt":"2020-11-23T17:33:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.indianz.com\/News\/?p=5014"},"modified":"2020-11-23T12:33:49","modified_gmt":"2020-11-23T17:33:49","slug":"indian-country-today-repatriation-law-marks-major-milestone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/2020\/11\/23\/indian-country-today-repatriation-law-marks-major-milestone\/","title":{"rendered":"Indian Country Today: Repatriation law marks major milestone"},"content":{"rendered":"<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"960\" height=\"639\" data-attachment-id=\"5030\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/2020\/11\/23\/indian-country-today-repatriation-law-marks-major-milestone\/npsnagpra\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/npsnagpra.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"960,639\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"NAGPRA\" data-image-description=\"&lt;p&gt;NAGPRA&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-image-caption=\"&lt;p&gt;Staff with the National Park Service, which oversees the National NAGPRA Program, are shown a Tlingit clan hat. Photo: &lt;a href=https:\/\/www.nps.gov\/orgs\/1207\/national-park-service-provides-1-6-million-in-grants-for-the-return-of-native-american-remains-and-sacred-objects.htm&gt;NPS&lt;\/a&gt;&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/npsnagpra.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/npsnagpra.jpg\" alt=\"npsnagpra\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-5030\" \/>\r\n<FIGCAPTION class=figure-caption>Staff with the National Park Service, which oversees the National NAGPRA Program, are shown a Tlingit clan hat. Photo: <A \r\nhref=\"\/m.asp?url=https:\/\/www.nps.gov\/orgs\/1207\/national-park-service-provides-1-6-million-in-grants-for-the-return-of-native-american-remains-and-sacred-objects.htm\">NPS<\/A> \r\n<\/FIGCAPTION>\r\n<div class=\"h3-responsive font-weight-bold\">Native American Graves Repatriation Act turns 30<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"h5-responsive sub\">Despite federal law ordering their repatriation, thousands of ancestors remains still languish in boxes and basements<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"date\">Monday, November 23, 2020<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"byline\">By Mary Annette Pember <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/mapember\"><I aria-hidden=true class=\"fab fa-twitter\"><\/I><\/a><\/div>\r\n<div class=\"source\">Indian Country Today<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"source-website\"><a href=\"https:\/\/indiancountrytoday.com\/\">indiancountrytoday.com<\/a><\/div>\r\n<p><\/p>\r\nAn antique Cheyenne girl\u2019s dress spotted with blood in a natural history museum\u2019s display case.\r\n<p><\/p>\r\nA cabinet of skulls in the Smithsonian museum with labels identifying them only by tribal affiliation.\r\n<p><\/p>\r\nThese are a few of the gruesome sights that galvanized Native American advocates to advocate for creation of the <a href=https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Native_American_Graves_Protection_and_Repatriation_Act>Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act<\/a> (<a href=https:\/\/www.nps.gov\/subjects\/nagpra\/index.htm>NAGPRA<\/a>) that was passed 30 years ago this month.\r\n<p><\/p>\r\nThe law was enacted to require federal agencies and institutions such as schools and museums receiving federal funding and holding collections of Native American remains and cultural items to engage in a process to transfer these items to lineal descendants, tribes, Alaska Native or Native Hawaiian organizations.\r\n<p><\/p>\r\nThe Indian Legal Program at Arizona State University recently organized a webinar, \u201c<a href=https:\/\/law.asu.edu\/nagpra-30-years-and-beyond>NAGPRA: 30 Years and Beyond<\/a>,\u201d to explore the history and future of the law.\r\n<p><\/p>\r\n<div class=\" content_cards_card content_cards_domain_twitter-com\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"content_cards_image\">\n\t\t\t\t<a class=\"content_cards_image_link\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/IndianAffairs\/status\/1328443482801905667\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-content\/plugins\/content-cards\/skins\/default\/content-cards-placeholder.png\" alt=\"\">\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\n\t<div class=\"content_cards_title\">\n\t\t<a class=\"content_cards_title_link\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/IndianAffairs\/status\/1328443482801905667\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/div>\n\t<div class=\"content_cards_description\">\n\t\t<a class=\"content_cards_description_link\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/IndianAffairs\/status\/1328443482801905667\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/div>\n\t<div class=\"content_cards_site_name\">\n\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/\/abs.twimg.com\/favicons\/twitter.3.ico\" alt=\"X (formerly Twitter)\" class=\"content_cards_favicon\"\/>\t\tX (formerly Twitter)\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\r\n<p><\/p>\r\nPresenters included advocates who helped bring the law forward including Suzan Harjo, Cheyenne\/Hodulgee Muscogee, writer, curator, policy advocate and president of the Morning Star Institute and James Riding In, Pawnee, founding member and associate professor, American Indian Studies at Arizona State University.\r\n<p><\/p>\r\nShannon Keller O\u2019Loughlin, a citizen of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, is executive director and attorney with the Association of American Indian Affairs, which has built a national and international effort assisting U.S. tribes and communities with domestic and international repatriation. He also presented.\r\n<p><\/p>\r\nThe passage of NAGPRA has helped tribes create an infrastructure in order to carry out the work of repatriating remains and cultural items held by institutions.\r\n<p><\/p>\r\nBefore the law was enacted, the examples of the Cheyenne girl\u2019s dress and cabinet of skulls were common sights in museum display cases all over the U.S.\r\n<p><\/p>\r\nNative American remains as well as their funerary (or grave goods) and cultural items were viewed by scientists and the public as resources to be collected and studied at will.\r\n<p><\/p>\r\n\u201cOur ancestors were commodified and thought of as someone\u2019s property that could be owned like a butterfly collection,\u201d said Harjo.\r\n<p><\/p>\r\n<figure> <img decoding=\"async\" itemprop=\"image\"  src=\"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/2017\/12\/15\/suzanshownharjo.jpg\" class=\"img-fluid\"><\/img>\r\n<figcaption class=\"figure-caption\">Suzan Shown Harjo. Photo: <a href=https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/archivesnews\/16138701111\/>U.S. National Archives<\/a>\r\n<\/figcaption><\/figure><p><\/p>\r\nThe skulls in the cabinet from Riding In\u2019s memory were likely collected during the 19th century as part of that era\u2019s scientific cranial studies that sought to compare the skull size of different races and assign superiority to Caucasians, who supposedly had larger skulls.\r\n<p><\/p>\r\nThe U.S. Army Medical Museum, now known as the National Museum of Health and Medicine, authorized military medical officers, physicians, scientists and explorers to collect specimens, such as skulls, from the bodies of deceased Native Americans. The skulls and other remains were subsequently identified by tribal affiliation and may have included information about or the name of the donor but not the identity of the person.\r\n<p><\/p>\r\nAccording to Harjo and Riding In, they learned that some of the skulls included in federal collections were stolen from children\u2019s graves at Carlisle, Haskell and Chilocco Indian boarding schools.\r\n<p><\/p>\r\n\u201cWe are dealing with things that most of the country has no idea happened,\u201d Harjo said.\r\n<p><\/p><div class=\"mt-1 mb-1\"><ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display:block; text-align:center;\" data-ad-layout=\"in-article\" data-ad-format=\"fluid\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-8411603009680747\" data-ad-slot=\"6394965691\"><\/ins><script>(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});<\/script><\/div><p><\/p>\r\nConvincing museums and the federal government that repatriation was not a property question but a human rights issue, however, began changing everything according to Paul Bender, moderator for the webinar.\r\n<p><\/p>\r\nBender is professor of law and dean emeritus at the Sandra Day O\u2019Conner College of Law at Arizona State University.\r\n<p><\/p>\r\n\u201cRequiring tribes not only be heavily involved in deciding what happened to Native remains but that they also had the last word is one of the defining principles of the law,\u201d Bender said.\r\n<p><\/p>\r\nAccording to Harjo, she focused on the language of NAGPRA in order to move repatriation work forward.\r\n<p><\/p>\r\n\u201cWe got rid of the colonial language of commodification, such as \u201cgrave goods\u201d that were used in old laws about pirate treasure; some scientists still hang on to that term. We had to convince them to use the term human remains,\u201d Harjo said.\r\n<p><\/p>\r\n<div class=\" content_cards_card content_cards_domain_twitter-com\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"content_cards_image\">\n\t\t\t\t<a class=\"content_cards_image_link\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ChickashaJenny\/status\/1328347591642390533\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-content\/plugins\/content-cards\/skins\/default\/content-cards-placeholder.png\" alt=\"\">\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\n\t<div class=\"content_cards_title\">\n\t\t<a class=\"content_cards_title_link\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ChickashaJenny\/status\/1328347591642390533\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/div>\n\t<div class=\"content_cards_description\">\n\t\t<a class=\"content_cards_description_link\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ChickashaJenny\/status\/1328347591642390533\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/div>\n\t<div class=\"content_cards_site_name\">\n\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/\/abs.twimg.com\/favicons\/twitter.3.ico\" alt=\"X (formerly Twitter)\" class=\"content_cards_favicon\"\/>\t\tX (formerly Twitter)\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\r\n<P><\/P>\r\nDuring the webinar, Riding In shared his experience working with the National Museum of the American Indian to repatriate the skulls of Pawnee scouts who were discharged from the U.S. Army in 1869.\r\n<p><\/p>\r\n\u201cThe scouts were shot and buried. An officer at Ft. Harker later dug up their remains and sent their skulls to the Army Medical Museum,\u201d Riding In said.\r\n<p><\/p>\r\nRiding In\u2019s research on the case helped convince the museum to repatriate the Pawnee ancestors\u2019 remains.\r\n<p><\/p>\r\n\u201cWe can\u2019t compromise over the fate of our ancestors; we can\u2019t let people come in and hoodwink us,\u201d he said.\r\n<p><\/p>\r\nRepatriation of remains and items from the Smithsonian Institution is governed by a separate federal law, Public Law 101-185. Under this law, the National Museum of the American Indian was created. The act also requires the Smithsonian to create and carry out an institution-wide repatriation policy for its other organizations such as the National Museum of Natural History and the National Museum of American History.\r\n<p><\/p>\r\n<figure>\r\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/2015\/04\/15\/sagchipceremony.jpg\" class=\"img-fluid\" itemprop=\"image\" alt=\"saginaw chippewa tribe nagpra\"><\/img><figcaption class=\"figure-caption\">The Saginaw Chippewa Tribe holds  a reburial ceremony in Michigan  for   ancestral remains returned to the community in November 2014. Photo by <A href=\"http:\/\/www.sagchip.org\/news.aspx?newsid=219\">Joseph \r\nV. Sowmick \/ Tribal Observer<\/A><\/figcaption><\/figure><p><\/p>\r\nAccording to O\u2019Loughlin, tribes have often relied on institutions to work with them in good faith, believing institution leaders understood that items in their collections were looted from the graves of their ancestors.\r\n<p><\/p>\r\n\u201cUnfortunately, many institutions used the law as an excuse to do more research on remains; they acted as though they were losing something that was theirs,\u201d O\u2019Loughlin said.\r\n<p><\/p>\r\n\u201cWe soon found that we couldn\u2019t rely on good faith. We need to understand how NAGPRA works as a law and remind them that the outcome is repatriation.\u201d\r\n<p><\/p>\r\nOne of the biggest sticking points for institutions has been the disposition of what they classify as unidentified or culturally unaffiliated remains.\r\n<p><\/p>\r\nInstitution leaders wanted to use their own measures to determine tribal affiliation rather than allowing tribal communities to determine if remains and items belonged to their ancestors.\r\n<p><\/p>\r\n\u201cThey (holding institutions) have to stop being judges of what is sacred to us. We have a lot of gatekeepers who think they are entitled to make those decisions for us. That\u2019s a declaration the people themselves should make,\u201d said Harjo.\r\n<p><\/p>\r\n<figure>\r\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1920\" data-attachment-id=\"5027\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/2020\/11\/23\/indian-country-today-repatriation-law-marks-major-milestone\/nmai\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/nmai-scaled.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"2560,1920\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;2.4&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;iPhone 11 Pro Max&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;1605021937&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;1.54&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;20&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0.0015625&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"national museum of the american indian\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"&lt;p&gt;Photo by Indianz.Com &lt;a href=&quot;https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-sa\/4.0\/&quot;&gt;(CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)&lt;\/a&gt;&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/nmai-1024x768.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/nmai-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"national museum of the american indian\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-5027\" \/><figcaption class=\"figure-caption\">The National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C., seen here on November 10, 2020, is subject to a different federal repatriation law. Photo by Indianz.Com <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-sa\/4.0\/\">(CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)<\/a>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n<p><\/p>\r\nAccording to Harjo, many institutions have used the excuse that items and remains were culturally unaffiliated in order to hold onto their collections and conduct further testing and research.\r\n<p><\/p>\r\n\u201cWe stopped that and forced the National Park Service, against their wishes, to make information available to tribes,\u201d she said.\r\n<p><\/p>\r\nO\u2019Loughlin agreed. \u201cNAGPRA is a law not a research project.\u201d\r\n<p><\/p>\r\n\u201cWe reject the term \u201cculturally unaffiliated or unidentified\u201d; we know more about our ancestors than these museums,\u201d Riding In said.\r\n<p><\/p>\r\nAccording to O\u2019Loughlin, 93 percent of ancestors who have still not been repatriated by institutions because they\u2019ve been declared unaffiliated do in fact have enough associated information to be repatriated.\r\n<p><\/p>\r\n\u201cThe only requirements for repatriation under the law are geography and tribal consultation,\u201d she said.\r\n<p><\/p>\r\nIn the last 30 years, 199,933 individual Native remains held by institutions have been identified according to O\u2019Loughlin.\r\n<p><\/p>\r\nOf those, 83,076 have been repatriated.\r\n<p><\/p>\r\n\u201c116,857 individuals, our ancestors, are still held in boxes and basements,\u201d O\u2019Loughlin said.\r\n<p><\/p>\r\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"100%\" height=\"166\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"no\" allow=\"autoplay\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/928140460&#038;color=%23ff5500&#038;auto_play=false&#038;hide_related=false&#038;show_comments=true&#038;show_user=true&#038;show_reposts=false&#038;show_teaser=true\"><\/iframe><div style=\"font-size: 10px; color: #cccccc;line-break: anywhere;word-break: normal;overflow: hidden;white-space: nowrap;text-overflow: ellipsis; font-family: Interstate,Lucida Grande,Lucida Sans Unicode,Lucida Sans,Garuda,Verdana,Tahoma,sans-serif;font-weight: 100;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/native-america-calling\" title=\"Native America Calling\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Native America Calling<\/a> \u00b7 <a href=\"https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/native-america-calling\/11-12-20-three-decades-of-protecting-cultural-patrimony\" title=\"11-12-20 Three decades of protecting cultural patrimony\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">11-12-20 Three decades of protecting cultural patrimony<\/a><\/div>\r\n<figcaption class=\"figure-caption\"><\/figcaption>Native America Calling: <a href=https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/native-america-calling\/11-12-20-three-decades-of-protecting-cultural-patrimony>Three decades of protecting cultural patrimony &#8211; November 12, 2020<\/a>\r\n<\/figcaption>\r\n<p><\/p>\r\nUnfortunately, according to presenters at the webinar, there are few penalties for institutions failing to follow NAGPRA.\r\n<p><\/p>\r\n\u201cWe need stronger language, bigger penalties and more ability to enforce the law,\u201d Harjo said.\r\n<p><\/p>\r\nThe federal law only applies to federal and tribal lands and institutions that receive federal funds and does not apply to state or private lands or institutions.\r\n<p><\/p>\r\nOnly a handful of states have enacted laws offering protections for Native burial sites according to O\u2019Loughlin.\r\n<p><\/p>\r\n\u201cThere is no national protective scheme to protect Native American graves,\u201d she said.\r\n<p><\/p>\r\n\u201cNAGPRA has helped us get a lot of things done to protect our ancestors and that is really important. But there is still so much to do,\u201d Harjo said.\r\n<p><\/p>\r\n<HR><EM>Mary Annette Pember, a citizen of the Red Cliff Ojibwe tribe, is a national correspondent for Indian Country Today. Follow Pember on <a href=https:\/\/twitter.com\/mapember>Twitter @mapember<\/a>. Based in Cincinnati, Ohio. Pember loves film, books and jingle dress dancing.<\/em><HR>\r\n<P><\/P>\r\nThis article originally <a href=https:\/\/indiancountrytoday.com\/news\/native-american-graves-repatriation-act-turns-30-BhnGrJBYbk-JrOirf6tdeg>appeared on Indian Country Today<\/a> LLC, a nonprofit, public media enterprise. ICT does not charge for subscriptions and tribal media (or any media, for that matter) can use the publiciation\u2019s content for free. <a href=https:\/\/support.indiancountrytoday.com\/>Contribute to the nonprofit<\/a> Indian Country Today.","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Despite a federal law ordering their repatriation, thousands of Native ancestors and artifacts remains still languish in boxes and basements across the country.","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5030,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_vp_format_video_url":"","_vp_image_focal_point":[],"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,11,20,13,1,14],"tags":[866,129,864,490,794,672,865,863],"class_list":["post-5014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","category-environment","category-indian-trust","category-law","category-national","category-politics","tag-aaia","tag-ict","tag-james-riding-in","tag-museums","tag-nagpra","tag-nmai","tag-shannon-oloughlin","tag-suzan-shown-harjo","no-wpautop"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/npsnagpra.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcoJ7g-1iS","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5014","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5014"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5014\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5030"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}