The National Park Service is awarding $3 million in grants to more than 30 tribes, museums, and academic institutions to assist with repatriation efforts under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA). This funding will support the return of ancestral remains and cultural items, as well as consultation and documentation efforts required by the law.
NAGPRA, enacted in 1990, requires federally funded institutions to inventory and identify Native American human remains and cultural items in their collections and consult with tribes for repatriation. The National Park Service administers grants to facilitate respectful return of ancestors and objects to descendant communities.
The funding is considered crucial for repatriation efforts, especially with new NAGPRA regulations and deadlines passed in December. These regulations require institutions to obtain tribal consent before displaying human remains and cultural items, causing museums nationwide to comply by concealing or removing exhibits.
Several tribes and museums will receive grants for transportation and reburial of human remains and consultation and documentation projects supporting repatriation efforts. For example, the Chickasaw Nation will repatriate 130 ancestors from the Tennessee Valley Authority for reinternment in Alabama. Other recipients include the Comanche Nation, Pawnee Nation, Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs Reservation, and museums like the Indianapolis Museum of Art and the Museum of Northern Arizona.
Overall, the grants will aid compliance with NAGPRA regulations and help ensure that Native American cultural heritage is respected and returned to the communities it belongs to.
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