NAGPRA Review Committe Gets Three More Members

Indian Country Today
November 20, 2015

"U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell has appointed three new members to the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Review Committee.

Heather Hecht Edgar, LindaLee (Cissy) Farm and Patrick D. Lyons will represent national museum and scientific organizations, the National Park Service (NPS) said in its announcement on November 18.

Jewell appoints members based on nominations by Indian tribes, Native Hawaiian organizations, traditional Native American religious leaders, national museum organizations and national scientific organizations, the NPS said. The committee monitors, reviews and helps implement some of NAGPRA’s requirements.

“The committee faces a challenging set of tasks, ranging from assisting in the resolution of disputes, to advising the Secretary of the Interior on specific actions for developing a process for disposition of culturally unidentifiable Native American human remains,” the NPS said in its statement.

Edgar is Curator of Human Osteology, Maxwell Museum of Anthropology, and an Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of New Mexico. She was nominated by the American Alliance of Museums, the American Anthropological Association, the American Association of Physical Anthropologists, the Archaeological Institute of America, and the Society for American Archaeology, the NPS said.

Farm is a partner at Goodsill Anderson Quinn & Stifel, LLP, a Hawaii-based law firm, and was nominated for a second term by the Natural Science Collections Alliance. Farm is no newcomer: She was not only a committee member from 2011 to 2015 but also chaired it from 2013 to 2015, the NPS said.

Lyons directs the Arizona State Museum and is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Arizona. He was nominated by the American Anthropological Association, the Archaeological Institute of America and the Society for American Archaeology."

More here.