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Native American Rights Fund
Repatriation Act Protects Native Burial Remains and Artifacts
Introduction
The Smithsonian Institution is often fondly
referred to as the nation's attic. While this
description seems benign and generally positive,
a more sinister aspect clouds that appellation for
Indian people. Recently, Indians learned that the
national attic holds the single largest collection
of Native American human remains in the
United States.
This fact was first brought to light in the sum-
mer of 1986, when a number of Northern
Cheyenne chiefs visited Washington D.C.
During the course of their visit they arranged to
tour the Smithsonian Institution's Cheyenne col-
lection at the National Museum of Natural His-
tory. As we were walking out, a Northern
Cheyenne woman who worked on Capitol Hill
later recalled, we saw [the] huge ceilings in the
room, with row upon row of drawers. Someone
remarked that there must be a lot of Indian stuff
in those drawers. Quite casually, a curator with
us said, Oh, this is where we keep the skeletal
remains, and he told us how many -- 18,500.
Everyone was shocked. 1
This discovery by a small group of visiting
Northern Cheyenne chiefs helped generate a na-
tional Indian movement that eventually resulted
in the enactment of Public Law 101-601, the
Native American Graves Protection and
Repatriation Act (NAGPRA). This law con-
tains several significant provisions. First, it re-
quires that federal agencies and private museums
which receive federal funding must inventory
their collections of Native American human
remains and associated funerary objects. Where
known, the tribe of origin must then be notified
and, upon request of the tribe, the ancestral
remains and funerary objects must be returned
for reburial or other disposition by the tribe.
Second, the legislation makes clear that Indian
tribes own or control human remains and cul-
tural items which are excavated or discovered on
tribal land or federal land (where certain criteria
are met) and that they alone have the right to
determine disposition of Indian human remains
and cultural items discovered in these areas.
Third, the legislation prohibits the trafficking of
Contents: Vol. 16, No.1
Winter IM '
Repatriation Act ........... 1
Case Updates ................ 5
New Board Members .......... 5
NARF Legal Review
Winter 1990
Digitized from Best Copy Available](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/narf16&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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