$1.5 Million In Grants Go Out To Help Tribes, Museums, Alaska Native Villages Regain Human Remains And Cultural Objects

The National Parks Traveller

August 23, 2014

The National Park Service has released more than $1.5 million in grants under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act to assist museums, Indian tribes, and Alaska native villages to document and return human remains and cultural objects to their native people. Grants were awarded both to support the efforts of museums, Indian tribes, Alaska native villages and Native Hawaiian organizations in the documentation of NAGPRA-related objects (consultation/documentation grants), and to pay for the costs associated with the return of the remains and objects to their native people (repatriation grants). This year, 29 grants totaling $1,471,625.00 are going to 24 recipients for consultation/documentation projects, and $95,423.40 is going to eight repatriation projects. “NAGPRA provides an opportunity to correct the mistreatment of native peoples' ancestral dead by returning the sacred objects and cultural heritage that have been removed from their communities,” said National Park Service Director Jonathan B. Jarvis. “These grants will continue the process by which more than 10,000 Native American human remains and one million sacred objects that have been returned to tribes and Native Hawaiian organizations. More here.