What's this about?

The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, commonly referred to as NAGPRA, is a federal law passed in 1990. NAGPRA was just one gesture made as a part of a larger movement to recognize and rectify government actions taking place over centuries against Native American cultures, Native Hawaiians and Alaskans. The purpose of NAGPRA is to protect indigenous human remains, funerary objects, and various sacred objects; however, archeologists see their livelihoods and science threatened by the law, which is in place to protect tribal rites and traditions, not jobs. At the time of NAGPRA's passage the amount of estimated human remains in the custody of museums and federal agencies was between 100,000 and 200,000 collections stored about 10-15 million cultural items. There are still many unidentified remains in collections today that have yet to return to their tribes. The rights bestowed are not new nor are they special, but rather, they are simply codified rights that under common law and property law should have been extended to America's first citizens.


To learn more about Lucy Frey, the creater of this work, click on her picture to the right!