Duty of Care: Challenges facing Tribal Historic Preservation Offices following the 2024 Revisions to the NAGPRA Implementing Regulations

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Four Decades of NAGPRA, Part 1: Accomplishments and Challenges" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The January 2024 revisions to the implementing regulations of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990 (NAGPRA) were a response to long-standing concerns that Federally-recognized Tribes have expressed over inadequacies in the NAGPRA compliance process. While the new regulations were undoubtedly a step forward, they also kicked off a new round of NAGPRA consultation that introduced an entirely new field of consultation, “Duty of Care.” The new tribal consultation initiatives have had a significant impact upon one particular area of tribal bureaucracy, the Tribal Historic Preservation Office (THPO). This paper briefly explores the fraught relationship between THPOs and the NAGPRA compliance ecosystem; ongoing issues with the NPS’ distinction between NAGPRA and the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 (NHPA) in relation to THPO funding; and how the best of intentions may have resulted in another unfunded burden on Tribes.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)   •
• Four Decades of NAGPRA, Part 1: Accomplishments and Challenges

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 54008