Rex Dalton reports on changes to the federal implementation rules of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act: "Rule poses threat to museum bones."
Following years of pressure from Native American groups, the new rule would give them the right to claim specimens without a cultural link if they had been found close to tribes' historic lands. "This is a major departure, going way beyond the intent of the original law," says John O'Shea, a curator at the University of Michigan Museum of Anthropology in Ann Arbor, which has about 1,400 specimens considered culturally unaffiliated. Overall, there are more than 124,000 culturally unidentified ancient human remains in US institutions; although estimates vary widely, at least 15% of these could be affected by the new rule.
The article quotes several scientists, including AAPA President Dennis O'Roarke, who opposes the new rule, as well as the response of the Obama Administration:
[T]he National NAGPRA office, the division of the US Department of the Interior that administers the law, says that the rule is in keeping with the intent of the 1990 act. Sherry Hutt, programme manager of the NAGPRA office, says that scientists have had sufficient time to study specimens that have been held for decades. "Holding the remains in perpetuity" isn't appropriate, she says.
I for one object to the photo used to illustrate the article -- it's a stock photo of objects in a museum, looking old and black-and-white, and doesn't even appear to be human osteological material -- there's a pliosaur on the wall and something that looks like a mammoth femur on a table. It's like they picked a photo intended to convey a museum overstuffed with improperly curated material. It would be more appropriate to depict the curatorial conditions that today's museums actually employ today for the material that NAGPRA affects.
