National Park Services Gives Grants for Repatriation

May 20, 2014 –

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

 WASHINGTON – The National Park Service today announced nearly $40,000 in repatriation grants under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) to assist museums, Indian tribes and Native Hawaiian organizations in returning ancestral human remains and cultural objects to their people.

“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.

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 and Native Hawaiian organizations regarding the return of these objects to descendants or tribes and organizations.  NAGPRA also authorizes the Secretary of the Interior to award grants to assist in implementing the law.

The grants announced today support the efforts of museums and Indian tribes to pay for the costs associated with the return of the human remains and objects to their native people.  NAGPRA also supports the efforts of museums, Indian tribes and Native Hawaiian organizations to consult and document NAGPRA-related human remains and cultural items in non-federal collections through consultation/documentation grants.

Projects funded by the grant program also include training for both museum and tribal staff on NAGPRA, digitizing collection records for consultation, and consultations regarding cultural affiliation and culturally unaffiliated individuals.

For additional information regarding these awards, contact Dr. Sherry Hutt, National NAGPRA Program Manager, at 202-354-1479 or via e-mail at sherry_hutt@nps.gov.