US Park Service grants $2.1m to restore Indigenous artifacts

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
13 Aug 2022 13:07

The National Park Service of the US granted awards in the amount of $2.1m to 20 museums to revive indigenous cultural traditions, as stolen artifact repatriations become prevalent across the West.

The logo of the National Park Service (nps.gov)

20 American museums and nine Indigenous tribes were awarded grants in the amount of $2.1m by The National Park Service (NPS) to assist in the consultation and repatriation of ancestral remains and cultural assets in an attempt to increase enforcement of the National American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act known as NAGPRA.

The Logan Museum of Anthropology at Beloit College in Wisconsin was one of the grantees that received approximately $12,000 to facilitate the repatriation of the remains of five individuals and 25 burial objects removed from Ventura County in California between 1875 and 1889 by an archaeologist, which were later sold to the museum.

Backlash after multiple stolen artifact restorations

Attempts to revive and prioritize indigenous tradition and life that has been culturally appropriated and intentionally neglected, and the Museum of Sydney has become one of the latest institutions to bring back the history of the Indigenous peoples. This also comes after a wave of indigenous genocide incidents have been exposed in both American and Canadian boarding school histories and a series of stolen artifact repatriations across the US and Europe.

The monetary support comes simultaneously with the organization’s ongoing revision of the NAGPRA statute that is overseen by the US Department of the Interior with the NPS and several tribe leaders. More than 700 proposals are being looked over as part of that process, which aims to evaluate compliance failures and correct shortcomings in the law that have impeded repatriation procedures.

The council of the Tlingit and Haida tribes has received almost $100,000, which will facilitate the deliberation and documentation of sacred ceremonial objects currently held in the collections section of the Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College, the Rhode Island School of Design, and the Museum of Us in San Diego, California.

NPS Director, Chuck Sams, described the grants as one way the NPS is developing a comprehensive governmental effort to enrich tribal sovereignty and mend “nation-to-nation relationships,” adding, “Repatriation of human remains and sacred cultural objects to Native American Tribes, Alaska Natives and the Native Hawaiian Community is fundamental to ensuring the preservation of Indigenous culture.”