Repatriation Of Native American Artifacts
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NAGPRA, which refers to the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, can be considered as the most powerful step towards the repatriation of Native American artifacts. As per this act, the federal institutions or the agencies those receive federal funding are liable for returning the Native American cultural items and human remains to the respective people.
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As far as the cultural artifacts go, they might include funerary items, sacred objects, and then the objects belonging to some cultural patrimony. Apart from all these things, this act also authorizes a certain program of the federal grants that assists the entire repatriation process. It is at present the strongest federal legislation as far as the aboriginal remains or the artifacts are concerned.
This act is one law which establishes ownership of the cultural items discovered or excavated on the tribal or the federal land after 16th November 1990. This act also applies to the land transferred by the federal government to the underlying states though the provisions do not hold importance and do not apply to the private lands. This act ensures that the Native American remains or artifacts belong to the lineal descendants. In case, they cannot be identified, then those artifacts or the remains belong to the tribe on whose land these remains were actually found or the ones having the closest relationship with them. It is known to provide with the repatriation of all such items when requested by some appropriate descendants of any such tribes and this rule applies to remains found or discovered at any point of time, even before the stipulated time.
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