Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) and Bannerstones

Professor of the History of Art
Fashion Institute of Technology
State University of New York
May 2024

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Upon the persistent requests of Native Americans after centuries of thefts and desecrations to their burial grounds and other sacred spaces, in 1990 the United States Congress passed NAGPRA, the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. This act protects the funerary remains of Native Americans, that is, their bodies and objects placed with these bodies in burials.[1] Under this law, Native American human remains and funerary objects are protected from being disturbed or excavated unless permissions have been granted by Native American tribes or lineal descendants. Funerary objects already in federal agencies or in museums and institutions that receive federal funding are to be made available to lineal descendants who have the right to request their repatriation, and in many cases, their reburial. In the newly revised NAGPRA laws of December 2023, who qualifies as a lineal descendant “requires deference to Native American traditional knowledge.”[2] This shift in the law recognizes Native American epistemological perspectives about who Native Americans are and what they have made and continue to make into and beyond the present. Whatever the aims of post-Enlightenment science or the elucidating potential of the exhibition of objects may be, these ideological motivations must be negotiated with and in light of the desires, memories, practices, and philosophical underpinnings of Native American people and their descendants.

According to the records of the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH), three bannerstones and one bannerstone fragment currently in the collections of the museum were removed in 1871 from the same burial at the Tomoka Mound Complex (8VO00081) in Florida.[3] Images of the three bannerstones and the fragment (accession numbers AMNH D/142, D/144, D/146, and D/147) also appeared here on this Bannerstone Project website. And though these bannerstones were cached in a discrete location away from human remains within the mound, The Seminole Tribe of Florida Tribal Historic Preservation Office has requested in accordance with NAGPRA regulations (43 CFR 10.2 and 43 CFR 10.1(d)) that we remove all images and metadata concerning these four stones—including images plaster castes of three of the stones in the National Museum of Natural History (NMNH A61057, A61058, A61059)—from the website. According to Dominique deBeaubien, Collections and Repatriation Program Manager of the tribe, in response to our questions about these four particular bannerstones, “further research, including publication of images, may not proceed without the Free, Prior, and Informed Consent of all potentially culturally affiliated Tribes.”[4] It will be up to these Indigenous tribal communities to determine whether these four bannerstones remain in the American Museum of Natural History, or like the remains of the Ancient One—known as Kennewick Man—they will be returned to tribal members to be reburied in a location of their choice.[5][6]

For insight and perspectives about photographing bannerstones and for this website in general, we are grateful for the advice of Nekole Alligood (Delaware Nation), NAGPRA specialist at the Ohio History Connection. Our considerations and the decisions we make reactivate bannerstones into the present, some seemingly calling out to tell stories of ancient Native American stone work dating back to 6000 BCE.

[1] National Parks Services. NPS Archeology Program: The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), https://www.nps.gov/subjects/archeology/napgra.htm

[2] Code of Regulations. National Archives and Records Administration. Title 43, Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Regulations. https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-43/subtitle-A/part-10

[3] Jon. C. Endonino, “Tomoka Archaeology Project Stage 1: Identification and Chronology of Mounds and Topographic Features at the Tomoka Complex (8VO81), Volusia County, Florida,” Technical Report 1 EKU Archaeology Laboratory Department of Anthropology, Sociology, and Social Work (Eastern Kentucky University, March 2019), 41-50. https://www.academia.edu/43472226/TOMOKA_ARCHAEOLOGY_PROJECT_STAGE_1_MAPPING_AND_EXCAVATION_AT_THE_TOMOKA_MOUND_AND_MIDDEN_COMPLEX_8VO81_VOLUSIA_COUNTY_FLORIDA

[4] Letter received May 30th, 2025

[5] Armand Minthorn, “Human Remains Should be Reburied,” Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation. Sept. 1996. https://web.archive.org/web/20140812090048/http://ctuir.org/kman1.html

[6] Kristi Paulus, “Kennewick Man finally buried by local tribes,” in keprtv.com Feb. 20, 2017. https://keprtv.com/news/local/kennewick-man-finally-buried-by-local-tribes