Oklahoma museums feel impact of new NAGPRA rules
Felix Clary
ICT + Tulsa World
NORMAN, Okla. — A sign sits in a lighted display case at the Sam Noble museum in central Oklahoma, surrounded by ancient Indigenous pottery and scattered display stands sitting empty.
“These objects have been repatriated in keeping with NAGPRA (Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act),” the sign reads.
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The sign may be an indication that the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History – and other museums in Oklahoma – could be feeling the effects of new changes in the federal NAGPRA law that went into force earlier this year.
Pottery is one of the items often ceremoniously buried with the deceased and can be considered a funerary item – one of the items now requiring extra scrutiny by museums, universities and other institutions that accept federal funds.
But unlike many museums across the United States, most museums in Oklahoma don’t appear to have shut down entire exhibits containing Native items. Instead, they appear to be selectively removing some items from display while they give them further review.
Of the nearly 100 museums and cultural centers in Oklahoma known to have human remains or Indigenous items, four appear to have pulled some items while others declined to comment. Federal records indicate the institutions combined have more than 3,500 human remains still among their holdings.
“Museums have exhibits and they have collections. A museum may have human remains in their collections, but not on display,” Dr. Marc Levine, the associate curator of archaeology for the Sam Noble museum, in an interview with ICT.
“We are a repository, so that’s why we’re doing repatriation,” Levine said. “We've been doing that before the new rules. Of course, the new rules are providing broader and deeper protections for the tribes, though. We provide tribes the notices, and then we publish it in the Federal Register. So, yes, museums are responsible for publishing what they have for all the world to know.”
The new rules give deference to Indigenous knowledge and require institutions to consult with tribes about the items. In response, the Field Museum in Chicago, the Peabody Museum at Harvard University, the Cleveland Museum of Art and the American Museum of Natural History in New York closed off entire exhibits to give them more time for consultations.
ICT contacted several Oklahoma tribes about the new NAGPRA rules, but has not yet had a response from officials about their consultations with museums.
‘Human remains and funerary objects’
Due to the new NAGPRA rules, museums are required to report any human remains or funerary objects that the museum has on display or in collections to the Federal Register and make an attempt to seek counsel with the tribes that the items belong to on whether they should be repatriated.
According to the Federal Register, the Sam Noble museum at the University of Oklahoma in Norman has 2,258 human remains as of Sept. 30, 2023.
The McCasland Foundation Hall of the People of OKlahoma at the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History in Norman, Oklahoma, includes a range of displays showing cultural items, pipes, moccasins and other items getting renewed scrutiny with new regulations that went into effect Jan. 12, 2024, under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, known as NAGPRA. (Photo by Felix Clary/ICT/Tulsa World)
Levine posted the most recent notice of inventory completion for the museum in the Federal Register last December.
In the notice, he wrote, “In accordance with the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum… has completed an inventory of human remains and associated funerary objects and has determined that there is a cultural affiliation between the human remains and associated funerary objects and Indian Tribes or Native Hawaiian organizations in this notice.”
He even specifies what sites the items were removed from in LeFlore County, Oklahoma.
There are 250 Native individuals — men, women, children, and intersex bodies — that were identified among the museum’s collection of human remains. There were 491 objects believed to be placed near human remains at the time of death as a part of a death rite or ceremony, including pipes, pottery, tools, jewelry and more.
The objects originally belonged to the Caddo Nation of Oklahoma and the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes, Wichita, Keechi, Waco, and Tawakonie, according to the notice.
The transparency required of museum curators across the country is meant to provide tribes more ease in locating missing funerary objects and remains and having them repatriated.
According to a report by ProPublica, the University of Oklahoma has made 1,358 remains available for repatriation, but they also have 2,324 remains not made available yet. This was last updated in November 2023.
Levine said there are no human remains on exhibit at the Sam Noble museum, and that if there were, it would be “far out of decent conduct.”
“We do have funerary objects on display, but most museums do have objects like that,” Levine said. “They’re often the most likely to be complete, as opposed to random, broken shells.”
Pipes made from local stone by Mississipian Native tribes found in Oklahoma are on display in March 2024 at the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History in Norman, Oklahoma. (Photo by Felix Clary/ICT/Tulsa World)
It’s not immediately obvious to museum visitors which items would be considered funerary objects in the displays, but the plethora of dolls, moccasins, clothing, jewelry and more that the museum has on display could be items that once had been buried with ancestors.
Levine said that they “have not had to shut down any exhibits” due to the new NAGPRA changes, although the World Cultures exhibit is currently closed.
The World Cultures exhibit included artifacts from Greece, Rome, and southern Indigenous cultures, such as Mayan textiles from southern Mexico and Central America, as well as wooden masks and toys made by the ancient Mayan people.
Officials did not say why the exhibit was closed, though some museum employees suggested it was closed because of “lack of funding.”
Other institutions
Federal records also list other Native remains held by museums and institutions in Oklahoma.
The Gilcrease Museum in Oklahoma is reported to have made 331 remains available for repatriation, and has 271 remains not yet available.
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Laura Bryant, the Gilcrease Museum’s NAGPRA coordinator and anthropology collections steward since 2016, said she is continuing the work toward returning human remains and sacred objects to the tribes they originally belonged to.
“A lot of these things should have never ended up in museums,” Bryant said. “This goes back to a very long history of collecting… whenever the original colonists were coming over to the United States. I mean, even Thomas Jefferson participated in the looting of archaeological sites.”
She also mentioned how institutions and the government would collect pieces in part to preserve the culture as “history,” but that they were trying to eradicate the people simultaneously. She said that ancestral remains were collected to be studied as part of eugenics, a belief that emerged in the 1800s of the genetic inferiority of certain peoples.
“There were a lot of really problematic things that were happening. People were collecting … remains to have in their collection … as artifacts and not as humans,” she said. “Typically, the people who were doing the gifting or… selling (the remains) didn't necessarily have the right to.”
When speaking to tribal representatives, Bryant says they often refer to the artifacts as “grandfather” and “grandmother,” so there is “a very personal relationship that the tribal representatives have with these people and with these items that are inappropriately in museum collections.”
“We want to work with the tribes, and we're inviting them to come in and review everything that we have here so that they know we're not hiding anything from them.”
Tribal museums
Several museums in Oklahoma are owned or funded by tribes, including the Five Tribes Museum in Okmulgee.
Typically, tribally owned museums do not have human remains or funerary objects, but rather items donated by Native individuals or tribes.
Sean Barney, the executive director for the Five Tribes Museum, said the new NAGPRA rules have had little effect.
“We are not affected much because the items were donated by individuals, and [we’ve] not had anyone request items back before,” Barney said. “The only time it happened was with the Keetoowah tribe, with their enrollment cards, that they wanted us to keep for safety. They just requested them back, and we returned them.”
Barney said that for many tribally owned museums, the items come with a “deed of gift,” which transfers ownership of the item to the museum.
“My opinion is that it depends on the person that’s donated the item,” Barney said. “We’ve received a lot of donations that when they arrive here, they are meant to stay here.“Since we are a five civilized tribes museum, if we get something that is not five tribes-related, we send it on to someone else.”
Ataloa Museum at Bacone College in Muscogee has had a different experience.
Bacone is an Indigenous-serving institution that houses the tribally operated Ataloa Museum.
Dr. Leslie Hannah is on the Bacone board of trustees and is also director of education for the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokees. With a grant to the tribe, he hired an archivist, Marcus LeClair, to work with him on archiving items from Ataloa.
Children's moccasins from about 1900 are mingled with those of adults in a display in March 2024 at the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History in Norman, Oklahoma. (Photo by Felix Clary/ICT/Tulsa World)
Part of their job is to identify the tribes that these items came from and to repatriate them as necessary.
Hannah said most of the items in Ataloa were donated to the museum by former students who purchased the items, and most of the time, they don’t know how the students acquired them in the first place.
“There were some water pots that are clearly Apache, and I took them to Fort Sill Apache Nation to have their museum cultural experts look and confirm they are Apache, but we’re not sure what band they belong to,” he said.
Hannah said the items date back prior to 1907, when Oklahoma became the 46th state in the Union. The pots remain in Hannah’s possession while officials determine which band is most appropriate.
“Fort Sill used to be a prison camp for ‘renegade Indians’ as they would have been called,” Hannah said. “So I need to make sure we return them to the right band.”
Hannah said that LeClair is a knowledgeable expert on cultural artifacts and can identify what tribe and band they belong to quickly.
He also said they must be returned “legally and properly, through the repatriation act, which means Bacone needs to create a [Memorandum of Understanding] stating, ‘We know this is yours, and we wish to give it back.’”
‘Ready to do it’
NAGPRA reaches beyond museums and universities, however, to include some institutions.
The Oklahoma Historical Society reported having 12 human remains that had not yet been made available for return.
Officials did not comment on the items they have, but emailed the Tulsa World a statement reading, “The Oklahoma Historical Society is currently in compliance with all NAGPRA regulations. We are currently in consultation with tribes on this topic.”
The No Man’s Land Historical society in Oklahoma is listed as having 19 items that have not yet been made available for repatriation. The museum curator, Sue Weissinger, who works for the museum strictly as a volunteer, stated that she is trying to repatriate the items in accordance with NAGPRA.
“I need help figuring out how to do this,” Weissinger said, “so if anyone reaches out to me who can help coordinate this process, I am ready to do it.”
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