Alaska tribes as well as Alaska’s University of Alaska Fairbanks will receive more than $350,000 in grants under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act also called NAGPRA The National Park Service announced on Monday. The organizations will use the funds towards bringing items with significance for culture returning to Alaska.
NAGPRA mandates federal institutions and organizations which receive federal funding, such as museums, universities or state agencies to transfer Native American, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian human remains and other cultural objects to their appropriate owners. The law was enacted in the year 1990.
The Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska and Qawalangin Tribe of Unalaska will be awarded funds to assist in the repatriation of remains as well as important objects.
The Central Council of Tlingit and Haida President Richard Chalyee Eesh Peterson said the tribe has received NAGPRA grants from the late 1990s to assist its repatriation and reintegration efforts.
“It’s an extremely responsible cultural actions we take is to return our cultural treasures which typically were stolen or illegally taken,” he said. “We believe that these objects be a symbol of the spirit of… they’ve been a kind of spark of reviving culture.”
Peterson stated that he’s seen items returned to his personal family and is aware of the strength of the process. “I’ve been in tears and goosebumps. It’s remarkable and profound. It’s thrilling to be a part of this. It’s thrilling to watch our ancestors’ descendants return.”
Tlingit as well as Haida has repatriated over 130 objects since it received its first NAGPRA grant in 1993.
Additionally, federal funds are available to consult with tribes, in which they visit museums to discuss cultural items. In the case of Alutiiq Museum and Archaeological Repository as well as The Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska and the University of Alaska Fairbanks will receive grants to this close.
The Central Council of Tlingit and Haida will utilize its share of this money to visit Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology at the University of California Berkeley as well as the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in which experts will decide what cultural treasures need to be returned to clans.
Desiree Duncan has worked with Tlingit and Haida since the time it started getting NAGPRA grants. She has said that she was a participant in museum discussions together with Elder Cyril George and remembers hearing his remarks about repatriation using Tlingit. Lingit languages: “Yeedat sa yei at yatee, oo awduudlixhaaji geidei heinaxh gaagoot. It’s normal to feel this way that one you’ve lost hopes of seeing for a long time appears across the street.”
The tribe wants at bringing home an audio and two masks, a raven’s totem as well as a box drum, and the killer whale tunic.
“It is a way to bring back our heritage that we consider sacred for us as well as our families,” she said. “It makes us feel alive again.”
This year, 28 museums and 16 tribes across the country will receive $3.4 million of grant funds from the federal program.
