American Indian Culture and Research Journal

The process of repatriation, set in motion by the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), is part of ongoing negotiations between American Indian nations and the United States federal government. Participating in repatriation necessarily brings one into contact with the historical gears of the process of colonization which ultimately give way to less mechanical and more personal strategies of assimilation, denigration, and/or creative transformation between people and nations. These various strategies are to be found in both the minute details of implementation and the overt policy decisions on the part of anyone involved in repatriation, Native American or non-Native. Strategic differences are the result of very different cultural standpoints and very different interpretations of the intent of NAGPRA. The overt goal of the NAGPRA repatriation process is to return to Native American control of all that has been taken from Native American communities without their consent: not only ancestral remains, but also funerary memorial offerings, sacred artifacts, and artifacts of cultural patrimony. From my perspective from within one institution involved in that process-the University of California, Los Angeles-and from my participation in the implementation of NAGPRAI - consulting with Native people on the cultural affiliation of human remains - I am very aware of the differences among Native American, federal, and institutional interpretations of the statute.