NAGPRA Zoom talk

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School

Western Carolina University *

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Course

300

Subject

Anthropology

Date

Dec 6, 2023

Type

docx

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Uploaded by KaylaGayle4

NAGPRA Talk Extra Credit (10 points) Due 3/2 by 11:59 pm Native Americans & NAGPRA | Institute of Native American Studies Dr. Ervan Garrison (Choctaw) will present a talk on Native American perspectives on the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation (NAGPRA) and the history of relevant US policy concerning Native American sites, artifacts, and ancestral remains. NAGPRA's landmark 1990 legislation has been difficult to implement and fraught with controversy. Dr. Garrison will discuss how NAGPRA has changed the field for archaeology and anthropology and how Native communities view continuing issues around this law. inas.uga.edu https://inas.uga.edu/events/content/2023/native-americans-nagpra Topic: Erv Garrison Native Americans & NAGPRA Time: Feb 15, 2023 04:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada) Join Zoom Meeting https://zoom.us/j/98640968483?pwd=N3hWYUhZRE5ndWlUZm0xZVlyQWh6Zz09 Meeting ID: 986 4096 8483 Passcode: 445925 Reflection Prompts 1. Summarize the presentation in one paragraph. Dr Garrison spoke on NAGPRA (Native American Graves Protections and Repatriation Act) from his perspective and from those of other Native Americans. He covered the history of the act as it relates to Native Americans. In 1990 NAGPRA was passed into federal law, providing a process for museums and federal agencies to return certain Native American cultural items to their respectful tribes. These items include human remains, funerary objects, sacred objects, and objects of cultural patrimony. Dr. Garrison also discussed how NAGPRA has changed anthropology (in my opinion for the better) because it gives the Native Americans more respect for anthropologists as they are taking their history more seriously and maintaining proper ownership. There are also some people who still refuse to comply with the act, like the Tennessee Valley Authority. 2. What are some of the primary struggles surrounding NAGPRA? Some of the primary struggles surrounding NAGPRA include people finding ways to get around the act. Like the University of Knoxville, Tennessee listing their items as “culturally unidentifiable” so they weren’t liable for NAGPRA, eventually it caught up with them but there’s no telling how many other organizations are doing similar things. Museums and government agencies are finding ways to prove items non-affiliable and non-repatriable which is preventing

them from having to return items back to their tribes. There are philosophical differences between the creators of NAGPRA and the people that run museums and agencies, this is what keeps them from having a successful act. 3. NAGPRA legislation has been fought about for 30 years. People do not want to comply. Why? “People” like those involved with museums and federal agencies don’t want to comply with NAGPRA because they see it as bad for business. Museums want to have the most appealing collections so they can remain in business NAGPRA prevents them from having collections with certain Native American items. This can seem unfair to them as they want to have ownership and control over items so they can be continued for use in their exhibits. Some museums have refused compliance with NAGPRA and still have items belonging to the Native American population in their custody. In the past certain Universities have gotten around NAGPRA by categorizing all the Native American findings as “culturally unidentifiable”. 4. What was the most impactful thing you learned? The most impactful thing I learned was the amount of people not complying with NAGPRA. Being from a tribe myself, I wanted to get into anthropology to learn more about my culture as I was largely separated from it growing up. I have little memory of being on tribe and encountering things like rightful ownership. So, hearing about NAGPRA and how people are disrespecting it really resonates with me. 5. What was the most surprising thing you learned? The most surprising thing I learned from the talk is that people are going so far to prevent NAGPRA from sending items back to their rightful owners. I never expected people to lie and find ways to cut corners just so they could have bigger collections or make more money. You can use this document to respond to the question prompts. Please submit your completed Reflection via Canvas. Grade will be based on quality of submission. A- Clear engagement with the event and thoughtful reflection with good description and examples to support prompts. B- Implied engagement with the event and superficial reflection with casual description and examples to support prompts. C- Unclear if the individual attended the event. Passive or potentially made-up reflection as reflected in passive description and examples to support prompts. D- Unclear if the individual attended the event. Limited or no response to prompts. F- Did not attend event

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