Museums announce repatriation of Native American cultural items under NAGPRA

Multiple museums across the United States have issued notices of intended repatriation of Native American cultural items in accordance with the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), Federal Register documents show.

The Putnam Museum and Science Center in Davenport, Iowa, plans to repatriate certain unassociated funerary objects linked to Indian Tribes or Native Hawaiian organizations, according to the Federal Register.

Similarly, the Birmingham Museum of Art in Alabama intends to return cultural items classified as unassociated funerary objects, sacred objects, or objects of cultural patrimony affiliated with Indian Tribes.

The Museum of the Rockies in Montana and the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum in Hawaii also announced plans to repatriate items meeting NAGPRA definitions and cultural affiliations with Native groups.

In Kansas, the Wichita-Sedgwick County Historical Museum plans to repatriate sacred objects connected to Indian Tribes, as noted in two separate Federal Register notices.

These notices reflect ongoing compliance with federal law requiring museums to return certain Native American cultural items to affiliated tribes or organizations.

The Federal Register documents emphasize that the online version is a prototype and not an official legal edition until formally authorized by the Administrative Committee of the Federal Register.