WASHINGTON – Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced on Friday, July 15 a total of $1,483,632 in grants to assist American Indian tribes, Alaska native villages, and museums with implementation of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA). Of this amount, $1,422,515 is going to 19 recipients for consultation/documentation projects, and $61,117 is going to five repatriation projects.
“Returning human beings to their descendants and cultural items to their inheritors is unequivocally the right thing to do,” Secretary Salazar said. “These grants will help to rectify an offense committed against American Indians in the past.”
“I am proud that the National Park Service plays a key role in the implementation of NAGPRA,” said National Park Service Director Jonathan B. Jarvis. “We take care of many places and objects that are part of our nation’s cultural heritage, and we are privileged to help American Indians enjoy their right to care for their heritage.”
Enacted in 1990, NAGPRA requires museums and federal agencies to inventory and identify American Indian human remains and cultural items in their collections, and to consult with culturally affiliated tribes, Alaska native villages and corporations, and native Hawaiian organizations regarding repatriation.
This year five repatriation grants, totaling $61,117, will go to the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, the Gila River Indian Community, the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, the University of Colorado, and the Denver Museum of Nature & Science.
Repatriation grants help with costs associated with the transfer of human remains and cultural items from institutions to tribes. This year’s grants will fund the repatriation of 32 individuals’ remains and over 200 cultural items from museums across the country to tribes.
FY 2011 NAGPRA Consultation/Documentation Grant Recipients
Bad River Band of the Lake Superior Tribe of Chippewa Indians – $90,000
Caddo Indian Tribe of Oklahoma – $68,717
California State, Sacramento – $89,905
Central Council of the Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes – $90,000
Del Norte County Historical Society – $51,085
Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe of South Dakota – $90,000
Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe – $74,823
Maxwell Museum of Anthropology, University of New Mexico – $89,877
Organized Village of Kasaan – $89,732
Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology -$90,000
Rochester Museum & Science Center – $59,127
Sitka Tribe of Alaska – $11,375
SUNY, College at Oswego – $90,000
Susanville Indian Rancheria – $90,000
Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians – $23,228
University of Colorado Museum, Boulder – $59,120
Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission – $87,053
White Mountain Apache Tribe of the Fort Apache Reservation – $89,997
Wisconsin Historical Society – $88,476
Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation – $9,996
Denver Museum of Nature & Science – $14,868
Gila River Indian Community – $14,407
Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe – $8,378
University of Colorado Museum, Boulder – $13,468
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