News Release

National Park Service Providing Funding for the Return of Native American Remains and Sacred Objects

Image courtesy of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

These grants help facilitate the return of ancestral remains and cultural items currently in museum collections to Indian tribes and Native American Hawaiian organizations, including this bear staff.

News Release Date: August 15, 2017

Contact: Victoria Stauffenberg, 202-208-6843

WASHINGTON – The National Park Service announced today $1.6 million in grants to Indian tribes and museums to assist in consultation, documentation, and repatriation of ancestors and cultural items back to Indian tribes and Native Hawaiian organizations.

“Respecting Native American history and culture is an important part of the National Park Service mission,” said Acting National Park Service Director Michael T. Reynolds. “These grants support the dedicated efforts of museum and tribal professionals to collaborate, consult, and respectfully return a significant part of our nation’s cultural heritage to Native American communities." 

The grants are awarded to 16 Indian tribes and 15 museums for consultation, documentation, and repatriation of Native American collections under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA). Twelve repatriation grants will fund transportation and reburial of 992 ancestors and 32 cultural items, covering trips from Connecticut to Alaska and Illinois to California and reburials in Alaska, Michigan, and Louisiana. Twenty consultation and documentation grants will provide funding for museum and tribal staff, travel, and, in cases where appropriate, digital photography, all in support of the repatriation process.

Over $250,000 of the funds will benefit Indian tribes in Alaska, building tribal capacity and funding consultation trips from Maine to Washington State. The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts will use grant funds to transport the Keet Gooshi (Killerwhale Fin) also called the “Bear Song Leader's Staff” back to Alaska. The Keet Gooshi was removed from Alaska sometime before 1948 and came to Richmond, Virginia, in 1955. The Keet Gooshi is a communally-owned object that has ongoing historical, traditional, and cultural importance to the Tlingit society and culture and is vital to the practice of the traditional Tlingit religion by modern day adherents.
 
Enacted in 1990, NAGPRA requires museums and Federal agencies to inventory and identify Native American human remains and cultural items in their collections, and to consult with Indian tribes and Native Hawaiian organizations regarding repatriation. Section 10 of the Act authorizes the Secretary of the Interior to award grants to assist in implementing provisions of the Act. The National NAGPRA Program is administered by the National Park Service.

For more information visit www.nps.gov/nagpra/.

FY 2017 NAGPRA Consultation/Documentation Grant Recipients

State	Recipient	Amount
Alaska	Central Council Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska	$88,120
Alaska	Organized Village of Kake	$88,528
Alaska	Sitka Tribe of Alaska	$36,206
Arizona	City of Phoenix	$66,783
Arizona	Hopi Tribe	$81,194
Arizona	University of Arizona	$69,349
California	Bridgeport Indian Colony	$90,000
California	San Diego Museum of Man	$88,856
California	Sherwood Valley Rancheria	$90,000
Colorado	Fort Lewis College	$89,878
Connecticut	Yale University	$82,860
Indiana	Trustees of Indiana University	$85,044
Maine	Abbe Museum	$11,275
Michigan	St Ignace City Municipality	$38,921
Missouri	University of Missouri System	$89,295
Ohio	Cincinnati Museum Center	$78,697
Oklahoma	Comanche Nation	$87,640
Oklahoma	United Keetoowah Cherokee Council	$84,278
Oklahoma	University of Oklahoma (Sam Noble Museum)	$90,000
Texas	Southern Methodist University	$87,074
	Total	$1,523,998

 
FY 2017 NAGPRA Repatriation Grant Recipients

State	Recipient	Amount
Alaska	Native Village of Barrow Inupiat Traditional Government	$15,000
California	Dry Creek Rancheria Band of Pomo Indians	$9,028
California	Wiyot Tribe	$5,605
Connecticut	Yale University	$14,802
Illinois	Field Museum of Natural History	$15,000
Michigan	Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe of Michigan	$9,230
Minnesota	White Earth Band of Chippewa Indians	$4,681
Nevada	Ely Shoshone Tribe	$9,644
Oklahoma	Chickasaw Nation	$15,000
Oklahoma	Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma	$6,801
Virginia	Virginia Museum of Fine Arts	$14,290
Wisconsin	State Historical Society of Wisconsin	$13,921
	Total	$133,002

 

www.nps.gov

 
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