Library: Indigenous Voices: Preservation and Repatriation Efforts

Repatriation Efforts

United States

Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act
Official site of the U.S. Department of the Interior Indian Affairs.
Carlisle Repatriation Advocacy Page
The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition site to assist Tribal Nations seeking the repatriation of their children buried at Carlisle.
Carlisle Indian School Digital Resource Center
Developed by Dickinson College, this project aims to develop a comprehensive searchable database of Carlisle Indian School resources. Beginning with the school records housed at the U.S. National Archives as part of the Bureau of Indian Affairs papers, materials that tell the story of the school and the many thousands of students who were sent there are being digitized. Desiring to add to the school's history beyond the official documentation, this project seeks partners among those institutions that hold additional records regarding the school, its many students, and its instructors. This site also plans to offer individuals the ability to contribute their own digitized photos, documents, oral histories, and other personal materials to the online collection.
Interior Department Takes Next Steps to Update Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act
NAGPRA regulations provide a systematic process for returning human remains, funerary objects, sacred objects, or objects of cultural patrimony to Native American and Alaska Native Tribes and Native Hawaiian organizations. The proposed changes would streamline requirements for museums and federal agencies to inventory and identify human remains and cultural items in their collections. 
Efforts to Protect and Repatriate Native American Cultural Items and Human Remains
This US Government Accountability Office WatchBlog post looks at recent work on federal efforts to protect Native American cultural items.
Facilitating Respectful Return
National Parks Service discusses implementation of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act.
TVA Notice of Inventory Completion
In accordance with the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) has completed an inventory of human remains and associated funerary objects. The human remains and associated funerary objects were removed from the states of Alabama, Kentucky, and Tennessee. The human remains described in this notice represent the physical remains of 4,871 individuals of Native American ancestry, at minimum. Repatriation may occur on or after April 28, 2023.

International

A critique of the status of ancient indigenous human remains in international law
This thesis set out to understand the continued retention and delay in the return of ancient indigenous human remains by museums through an overall examination of the status of ancient indigenous human remains in international law. This thesis focuses on the status of indigenous human remains from a legal perspective critiquing property, cultural property, cultural heritage, intellectual property, Traditional Knowledge (TK) and a human rights approach.
Fiona Batt, University of Bristol, 2015.
Policy for the International Repatriation of Human Remains National Museum of Natural History
2015 policy letter from the National Museum of Natural History on the subject of international repatriation.
International Repatriation Assistance
Office of International Affairs resource page assisting with foreign holdings and sales of American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian cultural heritage.

Books and Journals (Shippensburg Login Required)

Native Americans and Archaeologists by Nina Swidler (Editor); Kurt E. Dongoske (Editor); Roger Anyon (Editor); Alan S. Downer (Editor)
Publication Date: 1997
Legal and economic factors have thrust American archaeology into a period of intellectual and methodological unrest. Issues such as reburial and repatriation, land and resource 'ownership, ' and the integration of tradition and science have long divided archaeologists and Native American communities. It includes detailed discussions of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), enacted in 1990 in effort to legislatively redefine ownership of cultural items. Perspectives range from Native American representatives from tribes throughout the U.S., professional archaeologists and anthropologists working for tribes, federal and state agency representatives, museum specialists, and private archaeology and anthropology consultants. Published in cooperation with the Society for American Archaeology.

The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act after Twenty Years: A View from Indigenous Country
This article is based on the author’s remarks during a panel discussion on January 29, 2010, presented as part of the Repatriation at Twenty: A Gathering on Native Self Determination and Human Rights conference, sponsored by the Arizona State University’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law in Tempe, AZ.
Author Manley Begay, Jr, EdD (Navajo Nation)
Unwinding Non-Native Control over Native America's Past
A Statistical Analysis of the Decisions to Return Native American Human Remains and Funerary Objects under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, 1992-2013
Author Jason Corcoran Roberts (Euro-American) Diplomat, Attorney, and Archaeologist with a demonstrated record of working in International Affairs and Native American Law. Skilled in Diplomacy, U.S. Foreign Policy, Political Analysis, Native American Law, Cultural Property Law, Native American Affairs, Negotiation, and Tribal Consultation. Strong public service professional with a JD (focus in Native American Law) and MA in Anthropology (Archaeology).
Provinces of Meaning: Determining Cultural Affiliation under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act.
Using their own ten-year experience with the NAGRPA consultation process, the author contends that by using multiple provinces of meaning to determine cultural affiliation, NAGPRA failed to adequately consider that by their distinctness, disputes between the oral tradition and science could not be easily resolved within the confines of either. Instead, a resolution would require a resort to yet a third province of meaning, that of the law, which by nature is more closely aligned with science than the oral tradition. As a result, NAGPRA claims made by native people based on the oral tradition found themselves at a distinct disadvantage.
Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA)
Hearing before the Committee on Natural Resources, U.S. House of Representatives, One Hundred Eleventh Congress, first session, Wednesday, October 7, 2009.

Archaeological Preservation

Cultural Heritage Practice Note
This practice note discusses the legal frameworks used to protect historic and cultural resources of importance to Indian tribes. The Note discusses the National Historic Preservation Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, and religious freedom arguments, as well as the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, the Archaeological Resources Protection Act, and the Antiquities Act. It also discusses the Indian Child Welfare Act.
National Association of Tribal Historic Preservation Officers
NATHPO is the only national organization devoted to supporting Tribal historic preservation programs. Founded in 1998, NATHPO is a 501(c)(3) non-profit membership association of Tribal government officials who implement federal and Tribal preservation laws. NATHPO empowers Tribal preservation leaders protecting culturally important places that perpetuate Native identity, resilience, and cultural endurance. Connections to cultural heritage sustain the health and vitality of Native peoples.
Resource List: Preserving Native American Places
The National Trust for Historic Preservation Blog January 2023. While we often talk about Native American Heritage collectively, that heritage is comprised of many different histories and traditions and it is important to consider that in your preservation work.
Resource Round-up: PHMC’s Resources for Native American History in Pennsylvania
In Pennsylvania, the story of the Native American peoples who lived in what is now the commonwealth is largely told through archaeology and the sites and artifacts that are uncovered across the landscape.
Pennsylvania's State Historic and Archaeological Resource Exchange
PA-SHARE, or Pennsylvania's State Historic and Archaeological Resource Exchange, is the PA SHPO's new online data management and cultural resources GIS tool.
Pennsylvania History pre 1681
This is a static, archived version of the PHMC Pennsylvania History website which will not be updated. It is a snapshot of the website with minor modifications as it appeared on August 26, 2015.
Pennsylvania Archaeology Late Woodland Period
This is a static, archived version of the PHMC Pennsylvania Archaeology website which will not be updated. It is a snapshot of the website with minor modifications as it appeared on September 10, 2015.

Indigenous Voices

Repatriation Efforts

Books and Journals (Shippensburg Login Required)

Archaeological Preservation

Contact the Ezra Lehman Memorial Library