Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Review Committee Finding

[Ed note: A few more articles, with a different view, here and here]

We missed the NAGPRA Review Committee last week, held in DC. But here is at least one outcome from the committee's meeting:

Federal Advisory Panel on Repatriation Rules in Favor of Southeast Clans; Ruling a victory for the Teeyhíttaan and T’akdeintaan

A federal advisory panel decided Friday in favor of two Southeast Alaska Native clans seeking to repatriate more than 50 sacred and patrimonial objects from two museums.

In separate unanimous decisions, the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) Review Committee found that the Alaska State Museum and the University of Pennsylvania Museum did not have the right of possession to the items, meaning the museums did not acquire the objects with the consent of the clans that owned them.

The ruling was a victory for the T’akdeintaan and Teeyhíttaan clans, which had sought to repatriate the objects through Sealaska Corporation, Wrangell Cooperative Association, Hoonah Indian Association and Huna Totem Corporation. Under NAGPRA, objects of cultural patrimony and sacred objects, or at.óowu, must be repatriated through a federally recognized tribe, and Native corporations are recognized as Indian tribes under NAGPRA ... [read more here]

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