Services

We offer services that consult on Native American Graves and Reparation Act and provide education and guidance for both indigenous organizations and non-indigenous organizations.

The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (Public Law 101-601; 25 U.S.C. 3001-3013) describes the rights of Native American lineal descendants, Indian tribes, and Native Hawaiian organizations with respect to the treatment, repatriation, and disposition of Native American human remains, funerary objects, sacred objects, and objects of cultural patrimony, referred to collectively in the statute as cultural items, with which they can show a relationship of lineal descent or cultural affiliation. One major purpose of this statute (Sections 5-7) is to require that Federal agencies and museums receiving Federal funds inventory holdings of Native American human remains and funerary objects and provide written summaries of other cultural items. The agencies and museums must consult with Indian Tribes and Native Hawaiian organizations to attempt to reach agreements on the repatriation or other disposition of these remains and objects. Once lineal descent or cultural affiliation has been established, and in some cases the right of possession also has been demonstrated, lineal descendants, affiliated Indian Tribes, or affiliated Native Hawaiian organizations normally make the final determination about the disposition of cultural items. Disposition may take many forms from reburial to long term curation, according to the wishes of the lineal descendent(s) or culturally affiliated Tribe(s).

The second major purpose of the statute is to provide greater protection for Native American burial sites and more careful control over the removal of Native American human remains, funerary objects, sacred objects, and items of cultural patrimony on Federal and tribal lands. NAGPRA requires that Indian tribes or Native Hawaiian organizations be consulted whenever archeological investigations encounter, or are expected to encounter, Native American cultural items or when such items are unexpectedly discovered on Federal or tribal lands (Section 3). Excavation or removal of any such items also must be done under procedures required by the Archaeological Resources Protection Act (Sec. 3 (c)(1)). This NAGPRA requirement is likely to encourage the in situ preservation of archaeological sites, or at least the portions of them that contain burials or other kinds of cultural items. In many situations, it will be advantageous for Federal agencies and Tribes undertaking land-modifying activities on their lands to undertake careful consultations with traditional users of the land and intensive archeological surveys to locate and then protect unmarked Native American graves, cemeteries, or other places where cultural items might be located.

These programs challenge commonly held ideas about indigenous people and their cultural preservation. This includes perspectives on East Coast first contact tribes in VA and NC. Participants learn how the arrival of Europeans brought dramatic change. Explore the similarities and differences in indigenous life then and now. We also help indigenous people in a connection to preservation of their ancestral lands and a connection of the geographical territories of the indigenous descendants in that area.