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The countdown is on for federally funded museums and institutions that have Native American human remains. In January of 2024, the Department of the Interior updated a law known as NAGPRA in order to expedite the return of those remains to Native American tribes within five years after decades of delays and broken promises. The Ohio History Connection is now doing an inventory of its own collection. It's one of the nation's largest, and it's collaborating with tribes to repatriate remains in an effort to meet the deadline. Adriana Martinez-Smiley from member Station WYSO reports.
ADRIANA MARTINEZ-SMILEY, BYLINE: At the Ohio History Center, Neil Thompson guides me through an exhibit of the state's UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks.
NEIL THOMPSON: This exhibit chronicles the eight earthworks locations...
MARTINEZ-SMILEY: There're scaled images of ancient rock art, models of Ohio's environment centuries ago and excavated items used in Native American rituals. But out of view are more than 6,500 Native American human remains from tribes that were forcibly removed from the state in the 19th century. The Ohio History Connection, the state's preservation hub, possesses the remains and runs the center in Columbus. It's actively consulting with the 45 tribes tied to the Ohio River Valley to repatriate the remains. The chief of the Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma, Glenna Wallace, says work's been slow moving.
GLENNA WALLACE: Without question, this is very delicate. But it is a crucial conversation and one that is very important to all of us. There is an urgency about it. It has been on the back burner for far too long.
MARTINEZ-SMILEY: The urgency Wallace is referring to are updates to the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act - also known as NAGPRA. This law requires federally funded museums to identify Native American remains and funerary objects in their possession and work with the tribes from which they were taken to repatriate them. It passed in 1990, but last January, the U.S. Department of the Interior revised its regulations to streamline the repatriation process. It gave institutions five years to identify what's in their inventories and consult with tribal nations. That's a cumbersome process, says Stacia Kuceyeski, chief operations officer of Ohio History.
STACIA KUCEYESKI: Our NAGPRA staff is really cross-referencing the time of the ancestors, what time frame they're from, with the geography of where they came from and then who would've been on that land.
MARTINEZ-SMILEY: Several tribal leaders say it's good to finally see progress on returning the remains, but they also find it difficult to navigate the new requirements. Tribal nations and museums foot most of the costs. Federal grants exist, but they're so competitive, some refer to NAGPRA as an unfunded mandate. Logan York, historic preservation officer of the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma, says four of the five staffers dealing with its NAGPRA consultations aren't paid to do the work.
LOGAN YORK: We are now on this timeline to make sure that our ancestors are treated with respect, but we have no more funding to make sure it's done correctly.
MARTINEZ-SMILEY: The Trump administration has not indicated there would be any change to NAGPRA. In a statement to NPR, department spokesman Jordan Fifer only says that Interior Secretary Doug Burgum looks forward to working with tribes on this and other issues. There are other concerns besides a lack of funding and time. Historic Ohio tribes' remains are scattered about the country. For example, chief of the Shawnee Tribe Ben Barnes says it has to work with 26 states for NAGPRA consultations and only has two staff members to do it.
BEN BARNES: There's no single NAGPRA consult that's typical. Some can take years, some can take months, some can take weeks. Some collections are overseas. Some are split collections. Some of the ancestors were loaned out to another institution.
MARTINEZ-SMILEY: Eastern Shawnee Chief Glenna Wallace says each tribe has their own approach to repatriation, but they are all looking for the same outcome.
WALLACE: Our belief is that those remains are - that spirit is not at rest. That spirit is not at ease until it goes back to mother. And that has not happened, and that's what needs to happen.
MARTINEZ-SMILEY: Wallace says working to reinter these remains is a challenge, but it's a challenge each tribe is capable of meeting.
For NPR News, this is Adriana Martinez-Smiley in Dayton, Ohio. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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