Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act
n. (abbr.
NAGPRA
)
a federal law, passed in 1990 (Pub. L. 101–602, 25 USC 32), that provides for the return of certain sacred and ceremonial objects held by federal agencies to the Native American peoples from which they were originally acquiredParezo 1999, 306, fn. 51Likewise, recent laws like the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act require looking at original fieldnotes in order to establish cultural patrimony, sacredness, and the like.Behrnd-Klodt 2008, 196NAGPRA set nationwide repatriation standards, timetables, and procedures for the return to Native peoples of Native American human remains, burial items, sacred property, and objects of cultural patrimony from their existing locations in federally funded museums, institutions of higher learning, and state and local agencies.Christen 2011, 188, fn. 6Many professional organizations are working to define standards to deal with indigenous materials. The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990 in the United States was a defining moment for the legal recognition of tribal control over their cultural materials held in collecting institutions and for bringing the issues of varied types of access into the spotlight to be grappled with openly.Mathiesen 2012, 464PNAAM follows in the footsteps of the Native American Grave Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), which was in some ways a model for it. NAGPRA, a federal law passed in 1990, holds that ownership of “certain Native American cultural items—human remains, funerary objects, sacred objects, or objects of cultural patrimony” belongs to the “lineal descendants, and culturally affiliated Indian tribes and Native Hawaiian organizations.”Joffrion and Fernández 2015, 194The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA, 1990) defines the rights of Native American lineal descendants, Indian tribes, and Native Hawaiian organizations for the treatment, repatriation, and disposition of human remains, funerary objects, sacred objects, and objects of cultural patrimony. However, NAGPRA does not address the disposition of rights associated with archival materials.
Notes
Materials held by the Smithsonian Institution are not covered by this law.
