Oft Reoccurring Terms
A federal law enacted in 1990 designed to both protect Native rights to burial associated and sacred objects, as well as to provide a firmer way to implement aspects of the American Indian Religious Freedom Act of 1978.
What is the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA)?
A group to whom proposals for human or animal based research must be submitted to check for ethical treatment. Depending on the research, you may have to work with more than one.
What is an Institutional Review Board/IRB?
A method for people/groups of different backgrounds to build mutual respect and communication while acknowledging differing viewpoints, traditions, and community histories.
What are Cross-Cultural relationships?
A purple, blue, or white flower with an edible root that blooms in the middle of spring. Common in both Oregon and Washington.
What is Camas?
The idea that not all aspects of a culture are able/wanted to be shared with outsiders. Often spiritually related.
What are closed practices?
Museums/institutions create a list of relevant objects which then gets sent or requested by Tribes, organizations, or individuals. The group(s) identified will then be bought on for consultation. If a request for repatriation is initiated, the request will be posted in a federal register where it can be contested by others. If there is no contest, or the contest is resolved, then the repatriation will occur as has been decided through consultation.
What are the steps for repatriation?
(within the context of history work) A pedagogy which emphasizes the reduction and removal of the focus on history from solely the colonial perspective, for the purpose of representation.
What is Decolonizing?
An art form with practical applications. Some of the common types in the hobby community include; coptic, stab, spiral, and case.
What is bookbinding?
A department of a Tribe's government that often acts as the first point of contact for outside archaeology or other related work. Not all Tribes have one, and within the Tribes that do, not all are officially recognized by the federal government.
What is a Tribal Historic Preservation Office (THPO)?
The American Indian Religious Freedom Act is passed in 1978; the National Museum of the American Indian Act (NMAI) is passed in 1989 (this is why the Smithsonian has different federal regulations); the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) is passed in 1990; applicable institutions are required to send their official summaries of collections with unassociated, sacred, or cultural patrimony objects by 1/12/24; applicable institutions are required to submit their offical statements by 1/13/25 for collections with human remains or cultural items.
What is the timeline of repatriation legislation?
An idea that came up frequently during my interviews, this is emphasized as one of the potential values of museums as well as the reason for cross-cultural relationship building.
What is Cross-Cultural Awareness?
A small bird commonly seen whose main determining characteristic is their dark colored heads, white-flashing tail feathers, and their short seed-eating bill.
What is a Dark-eyed Junco?
The formal definition (paraphrased) of this term is an object which has significant historical or community significance to a Native (includes Native Hawaiian) group or sub-group according to that group's traditional knowledge. Importantly, this object must be something understood to be communal, and thus not legally allowed to be sold or gifted to outsiders.
What are Objects of Cultural Patrimony?
To directly quote federal documents, "... a specific ceremonial object needed by a traditional religious leader for present-day adherents to practice traditional Native American religion according to the Native American traditional knowledge..."
What is the formal, legal definition of sacred object?
When doing cross cultural work, there will often be difficulties with meeting the needs and wants of everyone involved. For museums, this often comes up as the resistance to critiscism or repatriation due to a belief that they are the "best" way to preserve or teach/learn from others. It often includes the personal convictions of the person or organization as well as the cultural backgrounds involved.
What are Conflicts of interest?
A way to refer to someone (other than by name) that is designed to be entirely removed from the concept of binary gendering. The first common use example is from 1858.
What are Neopronouns?
An individual or organization who is considered to have provable cultural affiliation with human remains or cultural objects.
Who is eligible to apply for repatriation?
Direct quote, "... possession or control obtained with the voluntary consent of a person or group that had authority of alienation."
What is the "Right of Possession?"
(Within the context of museums) A more recent pedagogy focus, this goes beyond decolonization. It emphasizes not only the removal of harmful narritives, but also collaboration during the entire process through hiring/training Native employees in all levels of the work, creating displays/sections through direct work with the peoples of the community you are referencing, and being truly open to feedback including "nos" when working with culturally significant or sensative materials. There is a strong emphasis on acknowledgement and value of different knowledge systems.
What is Re-Indeginizing?
Believed to be produced by the spleen and to create depression or melancholy when in excess; a part of the 16th-17th century medical theory of "Humorism".
What is Black Bile?