Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990 (NAGPRA)
The National NAGPRA Program
- Develops regulations and guidance for implementing NAGPRA
- Provides administrative and staff support for the NAGPRA Review Committee;
- Provides assistance with the NAGPRA Process to Indian tribes, Native Alaskan villages and corporations, Native Hawaiian organizations, museums, and Federal agencies.
- Maintains the Native American Consultation Database (NACD) and other online databases;
- Provides training in the NAGPRA Process
- Manages a grants program
- Makes program documents and publications available on the Web.
NAGPRA, passed in 1990, provides a process for museums and federal agencies to return certain Native American cultural items—human remains, funerary objects, sacred objects, and objects of cultural patrimony—to lineal descendants, culturally affiliated Indian tribes, and Native Hawaiian organizations. The National and Park NAGPRA programs are also administered by the National Park Service.
Learn more the National NAGPRA program, training, and grant opportunities.
Significance
As a federal agency that manages public land and cares for public collections containing Native American human remains, funerary objects, sacred objects, and objects of cultural patrimony, the National Park Service must comply with the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA). The Park NAGPRA compliance is managed by the Office of Indian Affairs and American Culture, Intermountain Region.
Over 100 NPS units have completed NAGPRA inventories and 349 NPS units are represented on the national NAGPRA summary completed and distributed in 1993. Nearly 6,000 sets of Native American human remains and over 82,000 associated funerary objects are listed in the inventories prepared and distributed to Indian tribes, Native Alaskan entities, and Native Hawaiian organizations, as required by the law. As of August 2005, National Park Service units have published Notices of Inventory Completion covering 3636 sets of Native American human remains and 21,348 associated funerary objects.
Impact of NAGPRA on the Ethnography Program
Regional and Park Ethnographers are often the primary agents assisting Indian tribes, Native Alaskan villages and corporations, Native Hawaiian organizations, museums, and federal agencies with the NAGPRA process in the field. Ethnographers conduct research to determine cultural affiliation of contemporary American Indian people to assist with repatriation of human remains and artifacts to their rightful owners. Ethnographers may also be the Contracting Officer’s Technical Representative on contracts to researchers for conduct of cultural affiliation studies.
Alaska National Interests Lands Conservation Act of 1994 (ANILCA)
Two of the Congress’s eight express purposes in enacting ANILCA 16 U.S.C. §§ 3101-3233 (1994) were associated with protecting the availability of resources associated with subsistence needs and providing “the opportunity for rural residents to continue a subsistence way of life.”
Alaska National Interests Lands Conservation Act of 1994
Major Provisions
- Preserve natural landscapes
- Maintain sound populations and habitats of valuable wildlife species, including those dependent on vast, relatively undeveloped areas
- Preserve unaltered arctic tundra, boreal forest and coastal rainforest ecosystems in their natural state
- Protect the resources related to subsistence needs
- Protect and preserve historic and archeological sites, rivers and lands
- maintain opportunities for scientific research and undisturbed ecosystems
- Provide the opportunity for rural residents to continue a subsistence way of life
Title VIII of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA) recognizes “subsistence” as the customary and traditional uses of fish and wildlife and other renewable resources for food, clothing, shelter, and handicrafts.
Significance
The law establishes a priority for these uses by rural Alaska residents over other uses, such as sport hunting and fishing, on national wildlife refuges, national parks, national forests, and other federal public lands.
Impact on Park Ethnography
Like the other laws described in this section, ANILCA requires consultation with people traditionally associated with the subsistence use of lands in Alaska. Research may be needed to determine to what extent Native Alaskan people acquire their subsistence from the land. Ethnographers serve as cultural brokers between groups fostering and conducting consultations and research. Read a description of this kind of interaction written by a Park Ethnographer and an American Indian.
