‘Beyond the Tangible: Repatriation of Cultural Heritage, Bioarchaeological Data, and Intellectual Property’ can be found in the special section on repatriation in the March 2010 issue of Anthropology News. IPinCH team members George Nicholas, John Welch, Alan Goodman and Randall McGuire discuss repatriation of intangible aspects of cultural heritage.
Tangible evidence of beauty, George’s photo, Mesa Verde in Late Spring Snow, is among the 2009 AAA Photo Contest Finalists at www.flickr.com/photos/anthropologynews.
On a different topic, IPinCH partner representative D. Bambi Kraus summarizes a report issued jointly by NATHPO and the Makah Tribe in her role as President of the National Association of Tribal Historic Preservation Officers (NATHPO). In October 2009, the report Federal Agency Implementation of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act was presented to the US House Committee on Natural Resources during a hearing on the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA). It sparked the Committee to join with the US Senate Committee on Indian Affairs in requesting that the Government Accountability Office conduct an audit of federal agency compliance with NAGPRA.
Further on the issue of repatriation, IPinCH team member TJ Ferguson is one of the authors of ‘Repatriation at the Smithsonian Institution’. Along with Bill Billeck, Jacquetta Swift, John Beaver, and Andrea Hunter, he outlines repatriation processes in place at the venerable institution.
On a tangentially related note, in November one of our first IPinCH case studies involved a visit to the Smithsonian Institution by Inuvialuit Elders, educators, youth research assistants, and anthropologists to view objects collected 150 years ago in the McKenzie Delta area of Canada. The trip to Washington established face-to-face communication between the Inuvialuit and scientists at the Smithsonian Institution.
Finally, IPinCH Partner Representative Rosita Worl, President of the Sealaska Heritage Institute, makes the case for today’s Native American tribes utilizing anthropology and employing anthropologists in ‘Tribal Anthropology in Public Policy Formation,’ in the Public Affairs section of the March Anthropology News.
