Abstract

The NAGPRA Student Fellow will provide a student with a unique hands-on learning experience assisting with compliance requirements for the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA). NAGPRA, established as law in 1990, provided a structure for the return of ancestors, funerary objects, sacred objects, and objects of cultural patrimony to Federally recognized tribes. The selected NAGPRA Student Fellow will shadow the NAGPRA Coordinator to learn all parts of the repatriation process, including the documentation of funerary objects, consultation with potential affiliated descendant communities, and the drafting of Federally mandated notices detailing the completion of NAGPRA collection inventories. The School of Human Evolution and Social Change has committed to meeting our NAGPRA compliance obligations, but efforts were severely impacted by the Covid-19 global pandemic. The NAGPRA Student Fellow will perform a critical role in mitigating our NAGPRA repatriation backlog. Further, the NAGPRA Student Fellow addresses a need for knowledgeable NAGPRA leaders, especially among Native communities which were disproportionately impacted by Covid-19, and will provide a path for future employment for the selected student.