FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS REGARDING REPATRIATION OF
NATIVE AMERICAN REMAINS AND FUNERARY OBJECTS

Q. What is NAGPRA?

A. The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) is a federal law passed in 1990 that provides a process for museums and federal agencies to return certain Native American cultural items—human remains, funerary objects, sacred objects or objects of cultural patrimony—to lineal descendants and culturally affiliated Indian tribes and Native Hawaiian organizations. Cultural affiliation is a legally defined term under NAGPRA (see below).

NAGPRA addresses unclaimed and culturally unidentifiable Native American cultural items. Museums are required by law to retain possession of culturally unaffiliated human remains until final regulations are promulgated or the U.S. Secretary of the Interior recommends otherwise.

NAGPRA includes provisions for intentional and inadvertent discovery of Native American cultural items on federal and tribal lands and penalties for noncompliance and illegal trafficking. The act also established the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Review Committee to monitor the NAGPRA process and resolve repatriation disputes. The committee is composed of three representatives nominated by tribes, three representatives nominated by museums and scientific organizations, and a seventh member from a list agreed upon by the tribal and museum representatives.

John O’Shea, U-M professor of anthropology and curator of the Museum of Anthropology, represented museums on the NAGPRA national review committee for seven years.

Q. What does NAGPRA require of the University of Michigan?

A. NAGPRA requires that Universities and other institutions receiving federal funding prepare initial inventories of human remains and summaries of associated grave goods and objects of cultural patrimony within its collection in the early 1990s. At UM, the Museum of Anthropology coordinated this effort, addressing its own collections and other possible relevant materials held in other units. The museum then promptly notified all federally recognized tribes likely to be culturally affiliated with the objects in its inventories. This included all federally recognized tribes in the state of Michigan.

The final inventory was completed in 1995, and in 2000, the Museum of Anthropology submitted an updated inventory to the national NAGPRA office within the U.S. Department of Interior.

In 2006, the Department of Interior promulgated a ruling that applies to relevant materials acquired by museums after the initial passage of NAGPRA in 1990. The Museum of Anthropology completed the required documentation to comply with this regulation in April 2009. The Report was submitted to the National NAGPRA office.

Q. How does NAGPRA define “cultural affiliation”?

A. The NAGPRA law defines cultural affiliation as “a relationship of shared group identity which can be reasonably traced historically or prehistorically between a present day Indian tribe or Native Hawaiian organization and an identifiable earlier group.” [25 USC 3001 (2)] Cultural affiliation is established when the preponderance of the evidence based on geographical, kinship, biological, archeological, linguistic, folklore, oral tradition, historical evidence, or other information or expert opinion – reasonably leads to such a conclusion. [43 CFR 10.2 (e)].

Q. Under NAGPRA, what is the status of remains that cannot currently be affiliated with a present day Indian tribe or Native American organization?

A. When remains cannot currently be affiliated with a present day Indian tribe or Native Hawaiian organization, they are considered “culturally unidentifiable.” The designation of remains as “culturally unidentifiable” is not permanent, and is subject to re-evaluation as new information becomes available and as new tribes achieve federal recognition, which gives them legal standing to seek repatriation.

Museums are required by law to retain possession of culturally unaffiliated human remains until final regulations are promulgated or the U.S. Secretary of the Interior recommends otherwise. Although draft regulations for the disposition of culturally unidentifiable human remains are under consideration, they have not yet been adopted.

Q. Has the Museum of Anthropology repatriated any human remains or funerary objects under NAGPRA?

A. Yes, the museum repatriated culturally affiliated human remains and funerary objects to the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians, Little River Band of Ottawa Indians and the White Mountain Apache Tribe. In each case, the University initiated the repatriation process.

Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians

In 1997, the museum repatriated items in the Rowland Collection to the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa. The items, acquired in 1924 from the Rev. L.P. Rowlands of Detroit, Mich., included one human cranium and 510 unassociated funerary objects ranging from silver ornaments, glass beads, brass and copper kettles to an iron hoe, pipe and textile fragments. Accession and other collection information indicate that these items came from graves in the areas of Middle Village, Goodhart and Cross Village, all located in Emmet County, Michigan.

Little River Band of Ottawa Indians

In 2000, the museum repatriated human remains and funerary objects from the Battle Point cemetery site in Ottawa County, Mich., to the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians. In 1955, George Davis and Edward Gillis of Grand Rapids, Mich., observed remains at the site eroding into the Grand River and excavated two burials exposed in the riverbank and three other intact burials. In addition to human remains, Davis and Gillis recovered trade artifacts, including glass beads, brooches, crosses, silver ear bobs and bracelets, iron pots, and clay pots dating the site to between 1810 and 1830. Davis and Gillis transferred the human remains to the museum, but kept the artifacts in their personal collections. In 1962, Richard Flanders of the museum revisited the site and made a small surface collection of artifacts and human remains that had continued to erode into the river. The collection included human remains of five individuals, the co-mingled remains of at least nine other individuals and 18 artifacts—small iron fragments, a sample of wood, one small cloth fragment, one iron nail, three silver fragments, one fish bone and 10 unidentified pieces of unmodified animal bone.

The White Mountain Apache Tribe

In 2002, the museum repatriated a Dilzini Gaan headdress to the White Mountain Apache Tribe of Fort Apache, Arizona. The museum acquired the headdress through a bequest by Louise S. Corbusier in 1966.

Q. What does the Museum of Anthropology’s NAGPRA inventory include?

A. The inventory includes collections from 465 archaeological sites; in addition, 354 ethnographic specimens were determined to be culturally affiliated. See NAGPRA-affiliated sites in Michigan and the United States at http://www.lsa.umich.edu/umma/nagpra/.

Q. Has the U-M notified Native American tribes of items in its collection?

A. In 1992, the Museum of Anthropology started sending notices to 44 federally recognized tribes across the United States which museum staff believed might have affiliations with materials in its collections, including all federally recognized tribes in Michigan. The tribes were invited to participate in the consultation process.

In addition, the University continues to work with tribes throughout the United States that have come forward with requests or new information about items for which cultural affiliation was not previously determinable.
Inventories of items for which cultural affiliation could not be determined are part of the national “Culturally Unidentifiable Native American Inventory” and available on the national NAGPRA Web site: http://www.cr.nps.gov/nagpra/ONLINEDB/INDEX.HTM. Additional information can be found at the museum’s Web site: http://www.lsa.umich.edu/umma/nagpra/

Q. How does NAGPRA affect the recent request for the transfer of human remains and funerary objects from three sites in Lapeer, Macomb and Saginaw counties in Michigan to the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe of Michigan, as the tribe requested and as endorsed by the Michigan Anishinaabek Cultural Preservation and Repatriation Alliance (MACPRA)?

A. The University is committed to complying with NAGPRA. Under NAGPRA, the University is prohibited by law from transferring the remains unless a lineal descendant or cultural affiliation has been determined.

In this case, the University has been unable to establish any lineal relationship or cultural affiliation between the requested remains and funerary objects and any federally recognized tribe. As a result, the collections from Lapeer (Younge Site #20LP1), Macomb (Riviere Aux Vase Site #20MB3) and Saginaw (Bussinger Site #20SA194) counties are not considered “culturally affiliated” (defined above) with any federally recognized tribe. Consequently, no tribe, including the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe of Michigan, was directly notified of those collections.

Moreover, the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe of Michigan does not claim to be culturally affiliated with these specific remains and funerary objects and has presented no evidence to the University about possible affiliation. The tribe claims only that the remains are Native American and should be given to the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe of Michigan as a representative of the broader Michigan Native American community.

Q. The Michigan Anishinaabek Cultural Preservation and Repatriation Alliance (MACPRA) endorsed the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe of Michigan’s request. Could the University give the unidentified remains and funerary objects to MACPRA? Was MACPRA notified about items in the museum’s collections?

A. MACPRA is an alliance of Michigan tribes. Under NAGPRA only an individual federally recognized tribe can claim cultural affiliation and request repatriation. Since MACPRA is a coalition of tribes rather than an individual federally recognized tribe, it does not have legal standing under NAGPRA. Therefore, MACPRA has not been formally notified of items in the Museum’s collections. Nonetheless, representatives of MACPRA have visited the museum, and information or descriptions of the collections are available to any individual or group on request.

Q. How does U-M handle requests for repatriation when a tribe is likely to be culturally affiliated with human remains or associated funerary objects?

A. The U-M, without exception, follows the wishes of the tribe regarding repatriation, subject only to public notice required by NAGPRA to provide an opportunity for conflicting claimants to come forward.

Q. What is the research value of the human remains in the Museum of Anthropology?

A. Archaeologists study the human past through the material remains left behind by past human societies; human skeletal remains provide unique information on the lives and histories of individuals and communities. Museum of Anthropology curators and associated researchers conduct archaeological research all over the world, exploring a range of questions concerning the history and development of prehistoric cultures. Materials in museum collections provide irreplaceable and unique evidence for the study of the prehistoric past, which are restudied repeatedly as new research methods are developed and new questions emerge. The remains in question are, in general, 800-1400 years old although some items in the three collections may be more than 3,000 years old. The artifacts provide information about cultures that inhabited the Great Lakes region.

NAGPRA balances competing interests: The ability of lineal descendants and affiliated tribes to reclaim remains and sacred objects and the larger public interest in understanding the past. Where direct relationships can be shown, the balance tilts toward the relatives. When the remains are sufficiently distant in time so affiliation cannot be shown, the balance tilts toward the larger public interest.

Although currently there are no identified lineal descendants of the human remains from the Bussinger, Riviere Aux Vase and Younge sites, advances in DNA technology eventually may allow us to identify the tribe with which the deceased are affiliated.

Q. Whom should people contact about NAGPRA repatriation requests?

A. For general NAGPRA questions, contact John O'Shea, NAGPRA coordinator, joshea@umich.edu, 734-764-0485 or Carla Sinopoli, director of the Museum of Anthropology, sinopoli@umich.edu, 734-764-0485. Contact Karen O'Brien, collection manager, klobrien@umich.edu, 734-764-6299, for information about the museum’s collection.

Q. Does NAGPRA apply to human remains or artifacts originating outside the United States?

A. No. NAGPRA regulations "apply to human remains, funerary objects, sacred objects, or objects of cultural patrimony which are indigenous to Alaska, Hawaii, and the continental United States, but not to territories of the United States” [43 CFR 10.1(b)(2)] (for additional information see http://www.cr.nps.gov/nagpra/SPECIAL/International.htm).

However, the University recognizes that communities located outside the United States may have legitimate interests in the repatriation of cultural remains and accepts inquiries from such individuals and communities. In 2005, the museum completed repatriation of a collection to a Canadian First Nation, and in 2004, the museum helped facilitate the repatriation of a privately held collection to representatives of the Yorta Yorta Nation Aboriginal Corporation in Australia. NAGPRA neither requires nor prohibits such efforts.

Q. Will U-M continue to adhere to NAGPRA?

A. The University always will obey the law, and all collections will be maintained in a respectful manner. The U-M seeks to maintain an open dialog with tribes in Michigan and elsewhere about the storage of human remains held in the Museum of Anthropology in anticipation of the adoption of final rules for disposition of culturally unaffiliated human remains under NAGPRA. The anticipated regulations will guide the determination of the rightful claimant of human remains.
The museum continues to welcome inquiries about its collections. To assist tribes in assessing its collections, the museum has made available a complete listing of its NAGPRA sites, including sites in Michigan (pdf) and the United States (pdf) http://www.lsa.umich.edu/umma/nagpra/. These listings provide basic information on site age and location, which can help interested groups determine whether to seek additional information. Inventories of items for which cultural affiliation could not be determined are part of the national “Culturally Unidentifiable Native American Inventory” and available on the national NAGPRA Web site: http://www.cr.nps.gov/nagpra/ONLINEDB/INDEX.HTM.

Approved August 15, 2008