First off, try an osteologist. You would be surprised how easy it is for
one to identify even bone fragments as human or not. Secondly, NAGPRA
protects human remains from invasive testing without permission from the
affiliated tribe. I realize in this case you have a catch 22, but you do
not want to tread into that water.

NAGPRA does recognize it may be impossible to identify the tribe that is
associated with remains. This is the law governing the disposition of
culturally unidentifiable remains
http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2010/2010-5283.htm In the end, it may be
easier to err on the side of caution and if it is human bone, follow
NAGPRA. I have been to many reburial ceremonies involving remains as small
as a toe bone or a tooth that was simply found in the area of the ancestral
home of a tribe.

NAGPRA can offer you grants to defer the costs involved
http://www.nps.gov/history/nagpra/GRANTS/INDEX.HTM

It is in the end about respect, and many see invasive testing as not
respectful.

Sarah



                                                                           
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Listeros:





Does anyone here have experience with the above topic?





Our museum has a small number (<50) of bones, which may or may not be
human, recovered by collectors and relic hunters over the past 80+ years
and donated to the SHU museum along with their arrow heads and axes.
Essentially, they are "Culturally Unidentified Human Remains" (CUHR). We
have submitted an inventory of them to the National Park Service (NPS) and
they are included on their on-line data base





For many we have no provenience data at all. For some we have a state and
county, and for a few we have a site name (e.g., a farm in the 1930s).
Recent proposed changes by the NPS in the regulations on how it museums
should deal with such CUHR will require that we contact the descendants of
tribes who lived in the areas of discovery. However, except in a few
obvious cases (a dog skull), in most cases we are not even sure that the
bones are human, let alone Native.





We have considered the possibility of genetic testing to seek evidence of
Native haplotypes/haplogroups.





Any thoughts?





Thomas Kavanagh, PhD


Seton Hall University Museum








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