Summaries of Cultural Items

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A NAGPRA Summary is a general description of Native American unassociated funerary objects, sacred objects, and objects of cultural patrimony in a holding or collection of a museum or Federal agency. A NAGPRA summary is an invitation to Indian Tribes and Native Hawaiian organizations to consult.

What must be done?

A NAGPRA summary must be sent to any Indian Tribe or Native Hawaiian organization who may be culturally affiliated with the cultural items. Museums and Federal agencies must respond to any Indian Tribe or Native Hawaiian organization that request to consult on objects in a summary.

How are summaries reported?

The Summaries Database contains the name of each Indian Tribe or Native Hawaiian organization that was sent a summary from a particular museum or Federal agency. Changes, updates, or new summaries should be sent to [e-mail]. A Statement of No Summary indicates that the museum or Federal agency reported not having any unassociated funerary objects, sacred objects, or objects of cultural patrimony.

How are cultural items repatriated?

First, an Indian Tribe and Native Hawaiian organization must request repatriation of the cultural items in writing, and then the museums and Federal agency must evaluate the request. A request for repatriation must show that the cultural items:

1. Are culturally affiliated with the requestor,
2. Meet the definition of a specific type of cultural item, and
3. Were not acquired with the voluntary consent of an individual or group that had authority to alienate the cultural item (see right of possession).

After evaluating and accepting requests for repatriation, museums and Federal agencies must publish notices of intent to repatriate prior to repatriating cultural items from a summary.

Categories of cultural items

Unassociated Funerary Objects: Objects that, as a part of the death rite or ceremony of a culture, are reasonably believed to have been placed with individual human remains either at the time of death or later, where the remains are not in the possession or control of the Federal agency or museum and the objects can be identified by a preponderance of the evidence as related to specific individuals or families or to known human remains or, by a preponderance of the evidence, as having been removed from a specific burial site of an individual culturally affiliated with a particular Indian Tribe. [25 USC 3001 (3)(B)] Those funerary objects for which the human remains with which they were placed intentionally are not in the possession or control of a museum or Federal agency. [43 CFR 10.2 (d)(2)(ii)]

Sacred Objects: Specific ceremonial objects which are needed by traditional Native American religious leaders for the practice of traditional Native American religions by their present day adherents. [25 USC 3001 (3)(C)]

Cultural Patrimony: An object having ongoing historical, traditional, or cultural importance central to the Native American group or culture itself, rather than property owned by an individual Native American, and which, therefore, cannot be alienated, appropriated, or conveyed by any individual regardless of whether or not the individual is a member of the Indian Tribe or Native Hawaiian Organization and such object shall have been considered inalienable by such Native American group at the time the object was separated from such group. [25 USC 3001 (3)(D)]