New federal rules went into effect earlier this month that govern the return of the remains of Native people and objects to tribes. Bonney Hartley of the Stockbridge-Munsee Community Band of Mohican Indians said the new regulations show more deference to tribal perspectives.
A summary of the rules published in the federal register said museums "must defer to the Native American traditional knowledge of lineal descendants, Indian Tribes, and Native Hawaiian organizations."
The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act was signed into law in 1990, but today the remains of more than 96,488 Native people are still on museum shelves, including 58 unearthed in Massachusetts. Thirty-nine of those were taken from their graves in Franklin, Hampden and Worcester counties, according to a National Park Service database.
Hartley, the Stockbridge-Munsee tribal historic preservation officer, pointed out aspects of the new rules that she finds encouraging: a five-year deadline requiring museums to comply, the elimination of the label "culturally unidentifiable" and a shift that allows one line of evidence to show ancestors are affiliated with a tribe, such as the geographic location of where they were dug up.
Hartley said in the past some institutions required multiple lines of evidence.
"We would often say, 'well, why is someone unidentifiable if you know where they were taken from? And we know that's where we lived, then there's a reasonable basis that that person could be from our tribe. And we'd like to respectfully return them and rebury and affiliate,'" she said.
Hartley said these changes reflect a push to fulfill the purpose of NAGPRA.
"Overall, there's more of a tone throughout the regulations of 'get this done. Get the ancestors off the shelf. This never should have happened,'" she said.
In addition, the new regulations require museums "to obtain free, prior and informed consent" from lineal descendants and tribes before allowing exhibition, access or research on human remains or cultural items.
Hartley said the Stockbridge-Munsee Community Band of Mohican Indians have helped repatriate 3,008 ancestors and currently they are working on bringing approximately another 2,300 home.
