Lincoln (Neb.) - Sept. 30, 1998 - The University of Nebraska- Lincoln kept its commitment to Native American tribes as promised on Sept. 1, submitting the federal regulatory paperwork necessary to release for repatriation the Native American remains in the university inventory.
Priscilla Grew, vice chancellor for research and NU's Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act coordinator, said all the required formal Notices of Inventory Completion were sent Sept. 30 to the National Park Service, which is the federal agency responsible for NAGPRA implementation, for publication in the Federal Register.
The Park Service is now responsible for processing and publishing the notices in the Federal Register. Repatriation to the tribes can take place immediately following the federal 30- day waiting period that starts once the notices are published in the register.
"We kept our promise, we did our homework, we kept our commitment," Grew said. "Our staff worked very hard to complete all the research, cross-checking and updating our 1995 NAGPRA inventory within the 30-day time limit we agreed to at the tribal meeting on Sept.1."
An unprecedented feature of the repatriation is the notice for repatriation of the partial remains of 492 individuals from the state of Nebraska. These were reported in 1995 as unaffiliated with any particular single tribe. On Sept. 1, signatory tribes agreed that the remains have shared affiliation with a large group of tribes.
Grew said that documents sent to the Park Service include a special request to the national NAGPRA Review Committee to recommend repatriation of remains for which no information at all is available.
The research in September resulted in the finding that some individual remains originally reported in the university inventory in 1995 are actually under federal control because they were taken from federal lands. These inventories have been forwarded to the Corps of Engineers and the Bureau of Reclamation. The university is urging each of those entities to expedite repatriation to the tribes.
The repatriation agreement was reached at a Tribal Meeting on Repatriation called into session Sept. 1 and 2 on the NU campus. As part of the agreement, the university said it would support the participating Native American tribes in their claim to remains of uncertain origin, so that they also could be released for re-interment.
Tribal representatives met at NU on Sept. 10-11 and Sept. 24- 25 to work with university personnel to help facilitate completion of the university's submittal of the release to the National Park Service.
"We could not have accomplished this task without their
help," Grew said.
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For questions regarding these releases, contact:
tsimons@unlinfo.unl.ed
u
(402) 472-8514, Fax: (402) 472-7825