Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act

Native American Grave Protection and Repatriation Act

Long title	An Act to provide for the protection of Native American graves, and for other purposes.
Acronyms (colloquial)	NAGPRA
Enacted by	the 101st United States Congress
Effective	November 16, 1990
Citations
Public law	101-601
Statutes at Large	104 Stat. 3048
Codification
Titles amended	25 U.S.C.: Indians
U.S.C. sections created	25 U.S.C. ch. 32 § 3001 et seq.
Legislative history
Introduced in the House as www.congress.gov/bill/101st-congress/house-bill/5237 by Mo Udall (D-AZ) on July 10, 1990 Committee consideration by House Interior and Insular Affairs Passed the House on October 22, 1990 (voice vote) Passed the Senate on October 25, 1990 (voice vote) with amendment House agreed to Senate amendment on October 27, 1990 (passed without objection) Signed into law by President George H.W. Bush on November 16, 1990

The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), Pub. L. 101-601, 25 U.S.C. 3001 et seq., 104 Stat. 3048, is a United States federal law enacted on 16 November 1990.

The Act requires federal agencies and institutions that receive federal funding to return Native American "cultural items" to lineal descendants and culturally affiliated Indian tribes and Native Hawaiian organizations. Cultural items include human remains, funerary objects, sacred objects, and objects of cultural patrimony. A program of federal grants assists in the repatriation process and the Secretary of the Interior may assess civil penalties on museums that fail to comply.

NAGPRA also establishes procedures for the inadvertent discovery or planned excavation of Native American cultural items on federal or tribal lands. While these provisions do not apply to discoveries or excavations on private or state lands, the collection provisions of the Act may apply to Native American cultural items if they come under the control of an institution that receives federal funding.

Lastly, NAGPRA makes it a criminal offense to traffic in Native American human remains without right of possession or in Native American cultural items obtained in violation of the Act. Penalties for a first offense may reach 12 months imprisonment and a $100,000 fine.

The intent of the NAGPRA legislation is to address long-standing claims by federally recognized tribes for the return of human remains and cultural objects unlawfully obtained from prehistoric, historic, former, and current Native American homelands. Interpretation of human and indigenous rights, prehistoric presence, cultural affiliation with antiquities, and the return of remains and objects can be controversial and contested. It includes provisions that delineate the legal processes by which museums and federal agencies are required to return certain Native American cultural items—human remains, gravesite materials, and other objects of cultural patrimony—to proven lineal descendants, culturally related Native American tribes, and Native Hawaiian groups. Specifically, these types of items which are found and scientifically dated to a time prior to 1492 C.E. are to be turned over to Native American tribes. This could include any future discovery of Viking burials, such as those from Leif Ericson's lost colony (which is thought to be similar to L'Anse aux Meadows).

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