Native leaders hope the Trees of Mystery museum s receipt of federal COVID-19 relief funds will force it to repatriate cultural items.
Small museums and private institutions that accept federal CARES Act money or other stimulus funds could be forced to relinquish thousands of Indigenous items and ancestral remains now in their collections.
Under the Native American Grave Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990, museums or other institutions that accept federal funding must compile an inventory of Indigenous cultural items and initiate repatriation of the collections and remains to tribes or family members.
At least two museums are now facing possible scrutiny the nonprofit Favell Museum of Native American Artifacts and Contemporary Western Art in Klamath Falls, Oregon, and the End of the Trail Museum, which is connected to the Trees of Mystery gift shop in the redwood forest in Klamath.
Private museums could face NAGPRA scrutiny
Museums and other institutions that accept stimulus funds could be required to repatriate Indigenous artifacts and remains
Author:
May 16, 2021
Eighteen medicine bags from the Portland Art Museum s Native American collection are headed back to Montana. The museum, based in Portland, Oregon, has also worked to return cultural and religious items belonging to the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. (Photo courtesy of Portland Art Museum)
Museums and other institutions that accept stimulus funds could be required to repatriate Indigenous artifacts and remains
Nanette Kelley
Small museums and private institutions that accept federal CARES Act money or other stimulus funds could be forced to relinquish thousands of Indigenous items and ancestral remains now in their collections.