NAGPRA Successes, Challenges, and Emerging Issues: Forest Service approaches to post-1990 discoveries

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Beyond Collections: Federal Archaeology and "New Discoveries" under NAGPRA" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The Forest Service manages 193 million acres and over 277,000 recorded sites throughout the United States; NAGPRA has become integral to how we conduct work. Developing POAs with tribes prior to intentional excavations has helped foster increased communication and collaboration; tribal roles in decision making influence how we work with academics and contractors. Providing reburial opportunities has added a meaningful dimension to our repatriations. However, we’ve often struggled with inadvertent discoveries. They rarely follow the "norm" envisioned by the regulations and many archaeologists and managers are far less comfortable with NAGPRA discovery than with collections requirements. Most of our inadvertent discoveries are made by recreational users and local law enforcement is frequently aware of discoveries before we are, further complicating the process by starting "sideways." Particularly in areas where discoveries are common, there is tribal interest in developing a more fluid disposition process than is laid out by NAGPRA. Another emerging issue is human skeletal materials inadvertently curated in post-1990 collections. After 29 years of working with NAGPRA, it is time to examine what is working well, what could be improved, and how we can better integrate NAGPRA into public education, university programs, and agency training and process.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Beyond Collections: Federal Archaeology and "New Discoveries" under NAGPRA   •
• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 23511