>NAGPRA stands for The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation
>Act. The following is taken from _CRM_ Volume 17 No. 6 1994: Archeology
>and the Federal Government.
>
>The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (P.L. 101-601;
>104 Stat. 3048, 25 USC 3001 note.), signed into law on November 16, 1990,
>requires Federal agencies and museums to inventory human remains and
>associated funerary objects and to provide culturally affiliated tribes
>with the inventory of collections. The Act requires repatriation, on
>request, to the culturally affiliated tribes and establishes a grant
>program within the Department of the Interior to assist tribes and Native
>Hawaiian organizations in repatriation and to assist museums in preparing
>the inventories and collections summaries. It also makes the sale or
>purchase of Native American human remains, whether or not they derive
>from Federal or Indian lands, illegal.
 
It is important for everyone to understand that NAGPRA only applies to
museums run by the Federal Govt. or museums that receive Federal funding.
It does not apply to private museums or public museums unless it can be
shown they receive Federal funding. The penalty that most public museums
fear is the loss of future Federal funding if they are in noncompliance
with NAGPRA.
 
NAGPRA creates a process whereby museums that come under its jurisdiction
agree to work with a tribe, only if the tribe requests it, to develop a
list of objects that both parties agree fits the definitions in the NAGPRA.
After the list is formed, THEN the tribe can petition for repatriation.
NAGPRA is not a "return-on-demand" law but is a process.
 
Paul Apodaca
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