National Park Service Announces Grants to Help Native Americans Identify and Repatriate Human Remains, Cultural Objects

 
 
Source: Office of Public Affairs-Indian Affairs, U.S. Department of the Interior

 

Washington – The National Park Service today announced more than $1.5 million in grants under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) to assist museums, Indian tribes, and Alaska native villages to document and return human remains and cultural objects to their native people. 
 
Grants were awarded both to support the efforts of museums, Indian tribes, Alaska native villages and Native Hawaiian organizations in the documentation of NAGPRA-related objects (consultation/documentation grants), and to pay for the costs associated with the return of the remains and objects to their native people (repatriation grants). This year, 29 grants totaling $1,471,625.00 are going to 24 recipients for consultation/documentation projects, and $95,423.40 is going to eight repatriation projects.
 
“NAGPRA provides an opportunity to correct the mistreatment of native peoples’ ancestral dead by returning the sacred objects and cultural heritage that have been removed from their communities,” said National Park Service Director Jonathan B. Jarvis.  “These grants will continue the process by which more than 10,000 Native American human remains and one million sacred objects that have been returned to tribes and Native Hawaiian organizations.
 
Projects funded by the grant program includes consultations to identify and affiliate individuals and cultural items, training for both museum and tribal staff on NAGPRA, digitizing collection records for consultation, consultations regarding culturally unaffiliated individuals, as well as the preparation and transport of items back to their native people.
 
Enacted in 1990, NAGPRA requires museums and federal agencies to inventory and identify Native American human remains and cultural items in their collections, and to consult with federally recognized Indian tribes, including Alaska Native villages, and Native Hawaiian organizations regarding the return of these objects to descendants or tribes and organizations.  The Act also authorizes the Secretary of the Interior to award grants to assist in implement provisions of the Act.
 
For additional information regarding these awards, contact Sherry Hutt, National NAGPRA Program Manager, at 202-354-1479 or via e-mail at sherry_hutt@nps.gov.
 
 
FY2014 NAGPRA Consultation Grant Recipients
Arkansas Archaeological Society
AR
$63,946.00
Central Council Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska
AK
$83,180.00
University of Alaska Museum of the North
AK
$12,300.00
California State University – Sacramento, University Enterprises, Inc.
CA
$89,740.00
Elk Valley Rancheria
CA
$52,008.00
Greenville Rancheria
CA
$12,300.00
Greenville Rancheria
CA
$70,000.00
Ione Band of Miwok Indians
CA
$90,000.00
Koi Nation of California
CA
$12,300.00
Koi Nation of California
CA
$90,000.00
Marin Museum of the American Indian
CA
$12,300.00
Table Mountain Rancheria
CA
$28,480.00
Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indians
CA
$12,300.00
Wiyot Tribe
CA
$90,000.00
History Colorado
CO
$53,424.00
The Field Museum – Hopi Collection
IL
$86,197.00
The Field Museum – Quinault Collection
IL
$6,000.00
Kickapoo Tribe in Kansas
KS
$12,300.00
Crow Tribe of Indians
MT
$12,300.00
Crow Tribe of Indians
MT
$40,000.00
Western New Mexico University Museum
NM
$90.000.00
Fallon Paiute Shoshone
NV
$90,000.00
Delaware Nation
OK
$87,460.00
Pawnee Nation
OK
$12,300.00
Confederated Tribes of Umatilla Indian Reservation
OR
$30,547.00
Texas Archeological Research Laboratory
TX
$90,000.00
Nooksack Indian Tribe
WA
$12,300.00
Nooksack Indian Tribe
WA
$40,000.00
Wisconsin Historical Society
WI
$89,943.00
 
Subtotal – consultation grants                                                                                 $1,471,625.00
 
FY2014 NAGPRA Repatriation Grant Recipients
White Mountain Apache
AZ
$15,000.00
Regents University of Colorado
CO
$14,194.00
Ball State University
IN
$5,539.00
Nottawaseppi Huron Band of the Potawatomi
MI
$15,000.00
Saginaw Chippewa Indian tribe of Michigan
MI
$8,717.00
Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe
NV
$6,973.40
University of Wisconsin
WI
$15,000.00
Wisconsin Historical Society
WI
$15,000.00
 
Subtotal – repatriation grants                                                                                       $95,423.40
 
TOTAL FOR ALL GRANTS                                                                $1,567,048.40