News Release

Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Review Committee provides its 2022 report to Congress

The Men’s Society of the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe of Michigan carry boxes that hold 124 ancestors and 219 associated funerary objects to the Nibokaan (Place of Sleeping) Cemetery for reburial during a Recommitment to the Earth ceremony.

Marcella Hadden, Niibing Giizis Photography

News Release Date: April 5, 2023

Contact: [e-mail]

WASHINGTON – The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Review Committee today provided its fiscal year (FY) 2022 Report to Congress. The report details the committee's perspective on progress made and the barriers encountered while implementing the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) during the previous fiscal year. The NAGPRA Review Committee is an independent Federal Advisory Committee. 

In the report, the Review Committee made five recommendations to Congress, including proposed changes to the legislation, that could increase compliance and success in the coming years. During its meetings this year, the Review Committee heard notable examples of progress made by Indian Tribes, Native Hawaiian organizations, and federal agencies in implementing NAGPRA. Despite this progress, the Review Committee continues to identify in its report longstanding barriers for swifter implementation of NAGPRA.  

Included in the FY 2022 Report to Congress, the NAGPRA Review Committee found that a cultural affiliation exists for over 10,000 individual human remains excavated from Moundville archeological site in Tuscaloosa County, Alabama. This cultural affiliation is between the present-day Muskogean-speaking Indian Tribes and the identifiable, earlier group connected to human remains and funerary objects. Under NAGPRA, “cultural affiliation” means that there is a relationship of shared group identity that can be reasonably traced between a present-day Indian Tribe and an identifiable earlier group.  

The NAGPRA Review Committee membership roles represent NAGPRA’s participants and beneficiaries. Three members are nominated by Indian Tribes, Native Hawaiian organizations, and traditional Native American religious leaders. Three members are nominated by national museum organizations and scientific organizations. One additional member is nominated by consent of all the other members. The Secretary of the Interior appoints all members to the committee. 

In 1990, Congress established the NAGPRA Review Committee with the passage of the Act. The NAGPRA Review Committee is required to monitor, review, and assist in the implementation of certain NAGPRA requirements and to report to Congress annually on the progress made and the barriers encountered in implementing NAGPRA. The committee assists in dispute resolutions between Tribes or Native Hawaiian Organizations and museums or federal agencies on the repatriation of human remains or cultural items and advises the Secretary of the Interior on the disposition of culturally unidentifiable Native American human remains. 

As the report is prepared by the NAGPRA Review Committee for Congress, it does not necessarily reflect the views of the Department of the Interior or the NPS. The report is available on the Reports to Congress website. To learn more about NAGPRA and NPS administration of NAGPRA visit the NAGPRA website. 

www.nps.gov 

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