Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) FAQ

The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act is a federal law passed in 1990. NAGPRA provides processes for museums and Federal agencies to return certain Native American cultural items - human remains, funerary objects, sacred objects, or objects of cultural patrimony - to lineal descendants, Indian tribes, and Native Hawaiian organizations. 

All Federal agencies are subject to NAGPRA. All museums and any institution, university, state agency, or local agency that receives Federal funds are also subject to NAGPRA. 

How many remains of Indigenous people are currently housed at Western?

The Anthropology Department currently has the care of the ancestral remains of 63 individuals and 18 ancestors with no known cultural affiliation, data which is available in the National Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) Inventory Database. 

As of early 2024, the university was responsible for 63 ancestors with known tribal affiliations and 18 ancestors with unidentified affiliations and hundreds of associated funerary objects. Western faculty have actively worked toward repatriating remains and artifacts that were sent to the university throughout the 1900s. 

Has Western publicly reported the ancestral remains and cultural items it houses?

Yes, all known ancestral remains and associated funerary objects housed at Western have been reported to National NAGPRA. It is entirely possible that ongoing consultation with tribal communities and their experts could result in the identification of additional items of cultural patrimony. If and when additional NAGPRA eligible items are identified in Western’s collections, they will be reported to National NAGPRA.

We have formally reported our housing of these ancestral remains and items of cultural patrimony under the National Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) as part of the process of repatriation. 

• In 2024, WWU hired Alyson Rollins as the new NAGPRA Program and Collections Manager. 
• Formal Submissions: Completed the necessary documentation for all 63 culturally affiliated ancestors and submitted it to national NAGPRA authorities.  
• Active Tribal Consultations: Began the process of engaging with 34 tribal and First Nations communities to address the remains of ancestors with unidentified affiliations.  
• Transfers Completed: Repatriated 41 ancestors and 238 associated cultural items to their communities, with 5 ancestors and additional sacred objects physically transferred.  
• New Discoveries: Identified 15 items of cultural importance through tribal consultations and prepared them for repatriation, with 77 additional items identified for future return.  
• Policy Development: Initiated the creation of a university-wide NAGPRA policy to standardize and sustain repatriation efforts. 
   

The ancestral remains referred to are small and fragmentary, as opposed to fully articulated skeletons. In some cases, the team involved in the review of all materials in our archaeology collection was able to identify ancestral remains among other materials which earlier archaeologists had missed. This has required highly technical expertise and painstaking work to identify.

None of these materials, whether ancestral remains or items of cultural patrimony, are used in instruction. They are not brought into the classroom and are stored with care and respect in a restricted-access room set aside for sensitive materials while they await repatriation. Several tribal communities affiliated with the ancestors and cultural items housed at Western have made visits to this location to provide recommendations and guidance on how to appropriately care for them. 

The ancestral remains we house are not used in research or in classroom settings. They are in safe storage and under the care of WWU’s Anthropology Department in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences.

How do these remains and cultural items come into your care and will you continue to receive more?

Remains and items of cultural patrimony have come into Western’s archaeological collections via donations from community members, archaeological excavations and other events, such as construction projects, throughout the 1900s. Our collections have included materials excavated in the 1980s and earlier, which were repatriated according to agreements reached prior to NAGPRA. 
In recent years, Western’s archaeology collections have housed ancestral remains and items of cultural patrimony subject to NAGPRA. We have repatriated many of these materials, keeping them close to their communities. 

Working closely with our tribal partners, Western will very likely continue to be an interim hosting location for ancestral remains and items of cultural patrimony that are discovered in future excavations, construction projects, or natural events.

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