National Museum of American Indian act
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The National Museum of the American Indian act (NMAIA) was passed in 1989. This law made it necessary for museums, especially the Smithsonian, to take an inventory of the Native American burial artifacts that they had in their archives, as well as on exhibit.
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[edit] Smithsonian
The NMAIA was passed with the Smithsonian in mind. As a result of the law, the Smithsonian Institution was required to document and repatriate culturally affiliated artifacts within a certain timeline.
The Smithsonian had amassed a huge collection of Native American artifacts and memorabilia including:
- 4,000 Native American remains. In 1867, the Surgeon General of the United States Army requested army medical officers to send skeletal remains of Native Americans to the Army Medical Museum. These remains were later transferred to the Smithsonian Institution beginning in 1898.
- Through archaeological excavations, individual donations, and museum donations, the Smithsonian was able to acquire about 14,000 additional Native American remains.
[edit] Criteria
The 1996 amendment to the NMAIA included five criteria for items that are eligible for repatriation:
- Human remains of known persons
- Culturally affiliated human remains
- Associated and unassociated funerary objects
- Sacred objects
- Objects of cultural patrimony
[edit] Sources
Watkins, Joe. Representing and Repatriating the Past, North American Archaeology 2005. Blackwell Publishing
