[our history or theirs?]

Who owns the rights to a culture's past? It's a simple question yet it causes so much debate around the world. For an English paper last year I tried to address the question and the best I could come up with is that when a culture, especially a First Nations community, asks for the repatriation of artifacts and items taken from them, it is unjust and unfair to hold on to these items simply in the name of science or for the recording of history. In a perfect world an agreement would be reached between the community involved and the museum where both sides would have their voices heard and their rights respected, the rights of the scientific community would not overrule the rights of the community involved, but the artifacts or in some cases the human remains would not be lost to the scientific community forever.

Georgia Joe, age 3, visiting Stone T’xwelaÅLtse at the
Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture.
Georgia’s grandfather Herb Joe carries the name
T’xwelaÅLtse. Seattle WA, 2006. ˝ David Campion

NAGPRA or the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act was created with this idea in mind. NAGPRA requires all 623 federally funded institutions in the United States to discuss with Native American tribes recognized by the government to whom remains may be culturally linked. The tribes then have the right to ask for the return of remains or objects that are linked to them. However, there are so many loopholes and the system in itself has many flaws. Scientists often feel that by returning goods or the remains of individuals there will be a huge loss to our understanding of Native American history. But this loss can be avoided in most cases if a relationship is established between a museum and the First Nation community. All in all the repatriation is a tricky issue that often gets clouded with ethical and moral issues. 

For more information on repatriation and NAGPRA here are some articles to check out:

Peerman, D. G. (1990). Bare-bones imbroglio : Repatriating indian remains and sacred
    artifacts. Christian Century, 107(29), 935-937.

Randerson, J. (2003). Experts squabble over ancient bones. New Scientist, 180(2421), 9-9.

Randerson, J., Ananthaswamy, A., & Young, E. (2003). Back to their roots. New Scientist,         178(2397), 12.

Simpson, M. (2009). Museums and restorative justice: Heritage, repatriation and cultural         education. Museum International, 61(1), 121-129.

Smith, J. (2011). Who owns the dead? Archaeology, 64(1), 16-62.