WASHINGTON – Scientists are considering a lawsuit against a new rule that would help repatriate thousands of Native American remains to tribes across the nation.

The rule, published March 15 and open for comment for 60 days, is a clarification from the Interior Department to the 1990 Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. It states that after appropriate tribal consultation, transfer of culturally unidentifiable remains is to be made to a tribe from whose tribal or aboriginal lands the remains were excavated or removed. Civil penalties are proposed for museums and learning institutions that do not follow the law.

The development has been largely celebrated by Native American communities, although tribal advocates say it has shortcomings, like not including sacred culturally unidentifiable funerary objects in its scope. Some tribes are using the open comment period to make that concern known, noting that common law and some state laws require repatriation of such objects.

Some scientists, however, are outraged by the new rule, believing that important human knowledge could be lost if the remains go back to tribes.

rest at

http://www.indiancountrytoday.com/national/90350684.html


Once again, we urge tribal members to let the Federal government know how they feel about the law!

Challenges to 43 CFR 10.11?

Some museums — including the American Museum of Natural History in New York, the Field Museum in Chicago, Illinois, and the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts — are discussing whether they will challenge the rule. The issue could have the same import as the long legal fight to study the 9,000-year-old Kennewick man skeleton against Native American wishes (see Nature 436, 10; 2005). In 2004, scientists won that court battle, affirming the principle that bones would be returned only to culturally related tribes.

Anthropologists and archaeologists are also gearing up to debate the rule. Discussions have already been scheduled for the annual meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropology, which starts on 14 April in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and the Society for American Archaeology meeting, which begins on the same day in St Louis, Missouri.

read it all at http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100331/full/464662a.html

UM news

WASHINGTON – A new rule involving the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act has one of the nation’s largest research institutions preparing to return a collection of more than 1,300 Native American human remains.

The University of Michigan in Ann Arbor announced March 26 that officials there have begun outlining a process for the transfer of Native American human remains to tribes.

The activity comes as a result of the U.S. Department of the Interior’s March 15 publication of a final rule clarifying how museums and institutions should handle Native American human remains that are under their control, but for which no culturally affiliated Indian tribe has been identified.

rest at http://www.indiancountrytoday.com/archive/89775852.html

More news on Univ. of Michigan

New rule to prompt University of Michigan to re-examine holdings of Native American human remains

Posted: 4:05 p.m. March 15, 2010

17 Comments. Comment Now

The University of Michigan will have to re-examine its holdings of Native American human remains under a change to federal guidelines announced today.

The U-M Museum of Anthropology has about 1,400 human remains in a storage facility that are 800 to 3,000 years old.

The 1990 Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, known as NAGPRA, requires museums, federal agencies and institutions to inventory holdings of human remains and identify their cultural affiliations with tribes. Native groups can then claim the return of remains deemed to be culturally affiliated with them.

Frank Bartley III, an Odawa Indian and a U-M student, beats the drum and sings with other Native Americans in front of Fleming Hall in Ann Arbor before a U-M regents meeting in this 2008 file photo. The gathering was part of a request to the regents to return Native-American remains.

Ann Arbor News file photo

What to do with the vast number of human remains where cultural identity hasn't been determined hadn't been fully addressed in the law and has been a sticking point between the University of Michigan and some Native American groups. U-M has designated the 1,380 human remains it stores "culturally unidentifiable."

Under the rule change, U-M museum officials would need to alert modern-day federal tribes of any "culturally unidentifiable" human remains it has that were discovered near areas the tribes historically occupied. Those tribes could ask for the remains to be returned based on the geographic link. A national review committee would settle disputes between tribes. The change will take effect in May.

rest at

http://www.annarbor.com/news/new-rule-prompts-university-of-michigan-to-re-examine-holdings-of-native-american-human-remains/

You can download/read 43 CFR Part 10 at

http://frwebgate3.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/TEXTgate.cgi?WAISdocID=74193128557+0+1+0&WAISaction=retrieve

Like we said yesterday, by all means send your comments in!

CUI RULE TO PUBLISH MARCH 15

The reserved section of the NAGPRA regulations, 10.11, the disposition of culturally unidentifiable Native American human remains, is set to publish on Monday, March 15, as a final rule. The rule will be effective on May 14, 2010. During the 60 days, the public may submit additional comments on the rule to Regulations.gov. The comments will thereafter be considered as to whether amendment to the rule is appropriate.

The National NAGPRA Program will offer a webinar prior to the comment deadline, which will include a training on the rule. The webinar date will be announced shortly anticipating a 200 capacity access line.

from http://www.nps.gov/nagpra/

NO MATTER WHAT THESE RULES SAY, TRIBAL CHAIRS, THPOs, and CULTURAL HERITAGE OFFICERS SHOULD SEND A LETTER TO THE GOVERNMENT AND COMMENT ON THE NEW RULES!!! The archaeologists sure will!

Glen Cove debate

Plans by Vallejo to turn a scraggly stretch of waterfront on the Carquinez Strait into a park with paved parking, trails and restrooms are infuriating local Ohlone Indians who say the 15-acre site is sacred and should be left alone.

The property is Glen Cove Park, a spot that was the site of a 3,500-year-old Ohlone village and shell mound where thousands of people were buried.

The settlement is one of the oldest Ohlone sites in the Bay Area and among the few that has eluded development. But for decades, Vallejo has wanted to convert the wildland to a park with a portion of the Bay Trail, picnic tables and a pastoral array of native plants.

"What we want to do is return it to what it was 100 years ago," said Steve Pressley, maintenance and development manager for the Greater Vallejo Recreation District. "As an agency, we have a responsibility to the public as a whole, and we need to consider all the components, not just the needs of Native Americans."

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/03/13/MN761CF40M.DTL#ixzz0i3h4RJrB

OMB meeting on new NAGPRA regulations

For objections to the new rules on the culturally unidentifiable human remains,
check out:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/1024_meeting_110409/

(Go to the bottom of the page for the objections)

Any surprise on who is objecting?

NAGPRA grant funding cut

NAGPRA suffers surprising proposed budget cut
By Rob Capriccioso

Story Published: Feb 7, 2010

Story Updated: Feb 5, 2010

WASHINGTON – One area of the Obama administration’s proposed fiscal year 2011 budget sticks out like a sore thumb. While most Indian-focused programs are remaining steady or are set to make increases, the National Park Service has proposed to dramatically reduce the amount available for NAGPRA grants.

[...]

Despite the tribal appreciation of the program, the Park Service only requested $1,750,000 for it in 2011. That’s a decrease of $581,000 or 25 percent of the level Congress appropriated for the program in 2010.

The dramatically curtailed request comes at a time soon after the Park Service reported the actual number of grant applications has more than doubled since fiscal year 2008.

The national review committee that oversees NAGPRA-related issues has long been concerned the grants program should not be shortchanged – and it has seen a need to increase, not reduce, its funding. The committee recommended in its 2008 report to Congress that the grant amount be increased to $4.1 million.

So, it is all the more puzzling to tribal officials why the Park Service is trying to cut the program via its reduced budget proposal.

rest at

http://www.indiancountrytoday.com/national/83643187.html

Help the Kumeyaay

Tell UCSD to return the remains!!!

11:28 am By la Macha ·

25 Jan 2010

The practice many universities and museums have of destroying and pilfering native peoples burial grounds in the name of “knowledge” is a long, disgusting and obscene practice. It is one that stems from the belief that Native bodies are extinct and “of the world.” That is, Native peoples are a rare species that never polluted, used every part of the buffalo, and cried at all the garbage the rest of us left all over their land. Not quite human. A morally superior species, yes–the Nobel Savage. But still a savage.

And when you combine the nobel savage mythology with the idea that “Indians are all dead,” you get a whole bunch of anthropologists, archeologists, and every other “ist” out there thinking that they’d better study these odd beings before they all disappear. By any means necessary.

rest at http://vivirlatino.com/2010/01/25/tell-ucsd-to-return-the-remains.php