NAGPRA — LLMpedia

NAGPRA
Name	Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act
Enacted	1990
Jurisdiction	United States
Citations	Public Law 101–601
Introduced by	Daniel Inouye
Signed by	George H. W. Bush
Date signed	November 16, 1990

Contents

NAGPRA is a United States federal statute enacted in 1990 to address the disposition and return of Native American human remains, funerary objects, and cultural items held by museums and federal agencies. The law arose from disputes involving tribes such as the Navajo Nation, Hopi Tribe, Zuni Pueblo, Sioux, and Iroquois Confederacy and institutions including the Smithsonian Institution, American Museum of Natural History, Field Museum of Natural History, and Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology.

Background and Purpose

NAGPRA's passage followed controversies involving cases like the Kennewick Man, the Wampanoag claims relating to Pilgrim-era sites, and repatriation efforts tied to collections from expeditions led by Lewis and Clark Expedition, George Catlin, and Edward S. Curtis; key congressional actors included Daniel Inouye, Ben Nighthorse Campbell, and Henry M. Jackson. The statute sought to reconcile historical practices of collecting by institutions such as the British Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, American Philosophical Society, and Harvard University with the rights asserted by tribal governments like the Cherokee Nation, Choctaw Nation, Pueblo of Zuni, and Taos Pueblo. Congressional debate involved committees chaired by members including John Dingell and drew testimony from representatives of the National Congress of American Indians, the Association on American Indian Affairs, and curators from the Museum of Natural History, Los Angeles County.

NAGPRA defines categories such as "Native American human remains", "funerary objects", "sacred objects", and "cultural patrimony", and applies to collections held by entities including the Smithsonian Institution, federal agencies like the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the National Park Service, and museums such as the Peabody Museum and Denver Art Museum. The statute requires inventories and summaries referencing collectors like H. R. Voth, archaeologists associated with the River Basin Surveys, and expeditions tied to John Wesley Powell, with determinations guided by standards from agencies such as the National Museum of Natural History and invoking consultation with tribes including Blackfeet Nation, Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, Osage Nation, and Seminole Tribe of Florida.

The law mandates notices, inventories, and consultations culminating in repatriation claims by federally recognized tribes including Oneida Nation, Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina, Nez Perce Tribe, and Yakama Nation; repositories like the Field Museum, American Museum of Natural History, National Museum of the American Indian, and university collections at University of California, Berkeley, Harvard University, and Yale University must provide summaries and inventories. Procedures reference compliance steps involving agencies such as the National Park Service, the Smithsonian Institution, and the Department of the Interior and rely on lineages and affiliation criteria exemplified by cases involving Kennewick Man, Spirit Cave Man, and remains repatriated to tribes like the Umatilla Confederated Tribes and Pueblo of Acoma.

Implementation has involved federal oversight by the National Park Service and adjudication in courts such as the United States District Court for the District of Columbia and the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, with participation from organizations including the National Congress of American Indians, the Association on American Indian Affairs, and museums like the Peabody Museum and Denver Art Museum. Compliance efforts included grant programs administered by the National Park Service, tribunal reviews involving the Indian Claims Commission lineage, and consultation frameworks drawing on tribal governments such as the Cherokee Nation, Sioux Nation, Hopi Tribe, and Pueblo of Zuni.

NAGPRA has been subject to litigation including cases tied to Kennewick Man (involving plaintiffs like Colin Groves-type controversies), disputes adjudicated in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Washington, and appeals to the United States Supreme Court in related contexts; legislative adjustments and policy guidance have been issued by Congress and agencies including the Department of the Interior and the National Park Service. Amendments and interpretive regulations have responded to scientific developments from researchers at institutions like University of California, Berkeley, University of Washington, Smithsonian Institution, and to archaeological protocols practiced by practitioners associated with the Society for American Archaeology and the American Anthropological Association.

NAGPRA reshaped relationships among tribes such as the Navajo Nation, Hopi Tribe, Zuni Pueblo, Cherokee Nation, and Sioux Nation and institutions including the Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of the American Indian, Peabody Museum, Field Museum, American Museum of Natural History, and university repositories at Harvard University, Yale University, and University of California, Berkeley by prompting repatriations like those involving Hopi ceremonial objects and human remains returned to tribes such as the Taos Pueblo and Hualapai Tribe. The law influenced museum ethics codes from the American Alliance of Museums, scholarly practices for researchers at University of Arizona, University of New Mexico, and University of Washington, and fostered collaborative curation models with tribal cultural centers like the Autry Museum of the American West and tribal museums such as the Museum of Indian Arts & Culture.