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Power inequity and the repatriation right in the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act

Date

2014

Authors

Green, Christopher, author
Pickering, Kathleen, advisor
Van Buren, Mary, committee member
Rollin, Bernard, committee member

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Abstract

The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990 sought to empower Native communities to reattain their ancestral human remains, funerary objects, sacred objects, and objects of cultural patrimony. Issues both in theory and in practice have arisen in regard to the law and have made implementation difficult and controversial. This paper seeks to analyze the power provided by the legislation and how it applied in the practice of compliance. This power dynamic is then reconciled within the repatriation ethic of the United States as well as internationally. As the scope broadens, an international repatriation ethic emerges that establishes repatriation of culturally affiliatable human remains and sacred objects as a basic human right for indigenous peoples.

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Rights Access

Subject

cultural resources
human remains
human rights
NAGPRA
repatriation
sacred objects

Citation

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