WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i), chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, and U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), vice chairman of the Committee, led a bipartisan group of senators urging the University of California, Berkeley, Harvard University, Illinois State Museum, Indiana University, and the Ohio History Connection to comply with the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990 (NAGPRA). The letters follow media reports that federally funded universities and museums have failed their mandate to return Native American cultural items and ancestral remains pursuant to NAGPRA.
“Delayed repatriation is delayed justice for Native peoples. For too long, Native ancestral remains and cultural items have been unconscionably denied their journey home by institutions, desecrated by scientific study, publicly displayed as specimens, left to collect dust on a shelf, or simply thrown in a box and forgotten in a museum storeroom,” the senators said in letters to the five institutions. “While NAGPRA has had positive and far-reaching impacts, such as improved relationships between museums, institutions, federal agencies, and Native peoples, and significant, successful repatriation of many cultural items and ancestral remains, Congress continues to receive troubling testimony detailing ongoing issues related to the timely completion of NAGPRA repatriations.”
The letters were also signed by Senators Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawai‘i), Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), Jon Tester (D-Mont.), and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).
Text of the full letter sent to all five institutions can be found below. The full letter to the University of California, Berkeley is available here.
As Senators and Members of the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, we write to express our grave concern over recent reports that institutions of higher learning such as yours have failed their statutory mandate to “expeditiously return” cultural items and ancestral remains of Native Americans pursuant to the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990 (NAGPRA).
Delayed repatriation is delayed justice for Native peoples. For too long, Native ancestral remains and cultural items have been unconscionably denied their journey home by institutions, desecrated by scientific study, publicly displayed as specimens, left to collect dust on a shelf, or simply thrown in a box and forgotten in a museum storeroom.
At the time of passage, Congress envisioned that NAGPRA repatriation activity would be complete, or nearly complete, within five years. But three decades years later, “a daunting amount of work remains,” and experts reportedly estimate that it could take as many as 70 more years before NAGPRA’s directive of expeditious repatriation is fulfilled. This is simply unacceptable.
Congress passed NAGPRA to address long-standing concerns over the mistreatment and disposition of American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian cultural items and ancestral remains possessed by federally-funded institutions and federal agencies. While NAGPRA has had positive and far-reaching impacts, such as improved relationships between museums, institutions, federal agencies, and Native peoples, and significant, successful repatriation of many cultural items and ancestral remains, Congress continues to receive troubling testimony detailing ongoing issues related to the timely completion of NAGPRA repatriations. These issues include insufficient consultation with Tribes, poor curation practices, misidentification of items, disrespect for traditional knowledge, and allegations of malfeasance to avoid or slow repatriation efforts.
Accordingly, we request an update on your institution’s current process and pace of repatriation, as well as information on its repatriation policies and practices pursuant to NAGPRA. We also specifically request responses to the following questions within 60 days:
- Please describe in detail how your institution determines if there is “a relationship of shared group identity that may be reasonably traced” when your institution is determining the cultural affiliation of NAGPRA-eligible items or ancestral remains, and explain how your institution interprets and applies the terms “totality of the circumstances” and “preponderance of the evidence” when making such determinations.
- Please describe the process your institution undertakes to determine—
-
- When there is sufficient evidence to proceed with repatriation; and
-
- When a cultural item or ancestral remain is culturally unidentifiable.
- Please describe the processes and methods your institution uses to gather and utilize Native traditional knowledge when determining the cultural affiliation of NAGPRA-eligible items or ancestral remains.
- Please provide examples of when your institution has used only Native traditional knowledge to culturally affiliate NAGPRA-eligible items or ancestral remains.
- Please describe each allegation filed with the National NAGPRA Program regarding your institution’s failure to comply with NAGPRA, including a summary of the circumstances and outcomes of the allegation(s).
-
- If your institution requested an informal discussion with the Secretary pursuant to 43 C.F.R. § 10.12(f)(1) in response to an allegation, please provide copies of all documents provided to, or received from, the Secretary in connection with the request.
-
- If an allegation of your institution’s failure to comply with NAGPRA resulted in a notice of a failure to comply, please describe –
-
-
- the steps your institution took to address the allegation, including the date on which the institution was informed of the allegation;
-
-
-
- the reason for the allegation, whether or not a request for informal discussion was made or occurred;
-
-
-
- the final determination of the Department of the Interior and the reason or reasons given for the determination;
-
-
-
- the court’s decision in any appeal your institution filed challenging the Department’s determination;
-
-
-
- a civil action, if any, instituted by the U.S. Attorney General against your institution to collect a penalty; and
-
-
-
- any corrective or remedial actions taken in response to an allegation or series of allegations, including but not limited to changes to applicable policies or procedures.
-
- Please describe the process your institution undertakes to complete summaries and inventories pursuant to 43 C.F.R. § 10.8 and 43 C.F.R. § 10.9, including the average length of time for completion and the average length of time to send the required Notice of Intent to Repatriate to the Manager of the National NAGPRA program.
- For each summary prepared by your institution, please explain whether the determination listed in the summary as sacred, possibly sacred, patrimonial or unassociated funerary objects was made by i) museum staff or ii) in consultation with tribal representatives or iii) some combination of (i) and (ii).
- For each inventory prepared by your institution, please explain whether the determination of human remains or associated funerary objects as either culturally affiliated or unaffiliated was made by i) museum staff or ii) in consultation with tribal representatives or iii) some combination of (i) and (ii).
- Please describe the process your institution undertakes to determine if cultural items or ancestral remains are not culturally affiliated, including the length of time, on average, it takes to notify the Manager of the National NAGPRA program.
- Please explain any discrepancies between your institution’s estimate of the number of cultural items and culturally unidentifiable remains in your institution’s possession or control, and the number reported by the National NAGPRA Program.
- Please provide an inventory of any human remains that are in your possession, but controlled by another agency or institution. Please also note what effort, if any, has been taken to ensure the possession of these items comply with NAGPRA.
We appreciate your attention to this important matter.
Sincerely,
###