Insiders and Outsiders: The Case for Alaska Reclaiming Its Cultural Property

Because of the historically troubling treatment of American Indians by the United States government, the nation’s native populations have been largely unable to control their cultural identities. Cultural property laws provide a framework for transferring stolen art and cultural objects to their native owners in an attempt to return cultural sovereignty to native communities. Despite Alaska’s large and thriving native population, Alaska Natives have trailed behind other states’ native populations in asserting their cultural property rights. This Note considers the current cultural property framework and its evolution in an effort to understand why Alaska Natives are not seeking return of their cultural objects to the same extent as other native groups

The bone battle: The attack on scientific freedom

NAGPRA (lovely acronym) is a federal law, passed in 1989, that requires agencies receiving federal support to allow federally recognized tribes to obtain “culturally affiliated” Native American human remains and artifacts - in other words, to reclaim bones, body parts, and burial objects from museums, research organizations, and other current owners. [...] decisions will be made on the basis of religious belief, not a showing of fact

An Anthropological Perspective on Magistrate Jelderks’ Kennewick Man Decision

The “Kennewick Man” controversy is an extremely important case in the history of American anthropology. As anthropologists with backgrounds in American Indian studies and American archaeology, we have a particular interest in this case. In this paper we present our perspective on the Kennewick Man case as anthropologists with expertise in archaeology, Pacific Northwest precontact history, Plateau ethnology, and cultural resource law. In general we find that the August 30, 2000, decision of Magistrate John Jelderks of the United States District Court for the district of Oregon to be incorrect and without anthropological foundation. Based on an analysis of the evidence reviewed by the Department of the Interior and Magistrate Jelderks we conclude that the Department of the Interior made a reasonable decision in determining that a preponderance of the evidence supports repatriation of the Kennewick Man to the defendants

A Rediscovery of Caddo Heritage: The W. T. Scott Collection at the American Museum of Natural History

Back in August 1997, the Caddo Nation of Oklahoma had submitted a Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) claim for a cranium that had been obtained by the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) in New York City in 1877. Very little information was known about these remains, other than it had been obtained as a purchase/gift to the museum by Charles C, Jones Jr. and was found in a mound somewhere near the Shreveport vicinity in Caddo or Bossier Parish, Louisiana. Based on the presence of artificial cranial deformation, the museum dated these human remains to a period of between A.D. 800 and the contact period. Because of the cranial deformation, and the archeological investigations that had taken place in the past in Louisiana, the museum had determined that the remains were culturally affiliated to the Caddo Nation. Through consultation with the Caddo Nation of Oklahoma and the Cultural Resources Office staff at the AMNH, in February 200 l the Notice of Inventory Completion was published for these human remains in the Federal Register

The Changing Understanding of North American Archaeology and Native American Heritage

This article explores the evolving ways in which anthropologists, archaeologists, and the United States government have viewed Native American cultural heritage, especially in terms of burials and grave goods. I begin with a historical view of the looting and racism that plagued the disciplines since their inception, and move into the present, while examining how NAGPRA has enabled indigenous communities to have a voice concerning what happens to their heritage, thus transforming archaeology in beneficial and productive ways that were previously not thought possible

In Defense of Property

This Article responds to an emerging view, in scholarship and popular society, that it is normatively undesirable to employ property law as a means of protecting indigenous cultural heritage. Recent critiques suggest that propertizing culture impedes the free flow of ideas, speech, and perhaps culture itself. In our view, these critiques arise largely because commentators associate property with a narrow model of individual ownership that reflects neither the substance of indigenous cultural property claims nor major theoretical developments in the broader field of property law. Thus, departing from the individual rights paradigm, our Article situates indigenous cultural property claims, particularly those of American Indians, in the interests of peoples rather than persons, arguing that such cultural properties are integral to indigenous group identity or peoplehood, and deserve particular legal protection. Further, we observe that whereas individual rights are overwhelmingly advanced by property law\u27s dominant ownership model, which consolidates control in the title-holder, indigenous peoples often seek to fulfill an ongoing duty of care toward cultural resources in the absence of title. To capture this distinction, we offer a stewardship model of property to explain and justify indigenous peoples\u27 cultural property claims in terms of non-owners\u27 fiduciary obligations toward cultural resources. We posit that re-envisioning cultural property law in terms of peoplehood and stewardship more fully illuminates both the particular nature of indigenous claims and the potential for property law itself to embrace a broader and more flexible set of interests

NAGPRA in Colorado: A Success Story

A primary goal of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) is to correct the human rights violations committed against Native Americans from centuries of grave looting, stealing, and improper sales of cultural items. In the twenty-two years since NAGPRA\u27s passage, the human rights foundation of the Act has been overshadowed by struggles regarding interpretation and implementation. The museums and Native American tribes of Colorado have not lost sight of NAGPRA\u27s human rights foundation, however. Their commitment to the spirit of NAGPRA is evident in the museums\u27 and tribes\u27 approach to basic implementation and taking the initiative to develop state law to fill gaps in NAGPRA several years before federal regulations addressed the same issue. The collaboration between Colorado museums and tribes is, therefore, a model for NAGPRA implementation today and for the future

Legal Consciousness and the Legal Culture of NAGPRA

This thesis explores the life history of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA). It chronicles NAGPRA\u27s story beginning with what created the perceived need for such an act, the work and the groups of people that went into its ultimate advent in 1990, the nitty-gritty details/language of the policy itself, and its various successes and failures throughout the years. With research conducted through the lens of legal anthropology, this paper focuses on the certain requirements (education, class, race, ethnicity, tribal affiliation, etc.) that have allowed people(s) to actively participate in the formation/policy-building of NAGPRA, become NAGPRA representatives, and benefit from the policy. The primary focus of this thesis is on the question What is the legal culture of NAGPRA? It examines NAGPRA\u27s legal culture by utilizing American sociologists Patricia Ewick and Susan S. Silbey\u27s legal consciousnesses of before, with, and against the law. It then goes on to show that a fourth, new consciousness --beyond the law -- presents itself in the legal culture of NAGPRA. This fourth consciousness is developed in this thesis and necessary to more fully address the spirit of the law -- a key force in building and sustaining the legal culture of NAGPRA

Documentation of Ancestral Caddo Ceramic Vessels from the Knight’s Bluff (41CS14) and Sherwin (41CS26) Sites, Cass County, Texas

A number of years ago, Perttula documented a variety of funerary objects through a Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) grant awarded to the Caddo Nation of Oklahoma. These were from ancestral Caddo sites on U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Fort Worth District lands in East Texas, including funerary objects from the Knight’s Bluff and Sherwin sites at Lake Wright Patman in the Sulphur River basin. These NAGPRA materials are held at the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory at The University of Texas at Austin (TARL). At that time, only a few ceramic vessel funerary objects were made available for NAGPRA documentation purposes, including only three ceramic vessels from Burial 4 at the Knight’s Bluff site, and six vessels from Burials 4 and 6 at the Sherwin site. The remainder of the ceramic vessel funerary objects from these two sites (n=16 vessels from Knight’s Bluff and n=13 vessels from the Sherwin site), plus one vessel from general Lake Wright Patman contexts, either from Knight’s Bluff or the Sherwin site, have recently been documented, and they are discussed in the remainder of this article