The Logan Museum of Anthropology at Beloit College is planning to cover up part of an exhibit in response to new federal rules governing how museums should handle objects sacred to Native Americans.
The updates to the federal Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, or NAGPRA, which took effect Jan. 12, aim to give more authority to tribes by requiring federally-funded institutions to get prior consent before displaying or conducting research on human remains and culturally significant items.
That includes anything classified as a “funerary object,” meaning something that was placed with someone for burial.
As a result of the changes, staff at Beloit’s Logan Museum have ordered materials so they can cover up the second story of a visible storage display, in which hundreds of objects are encased in glass.
That’s because part of that display includes ceramic bowls that were associated with Native American burials, the museum’s Executive Director Nicolette Meister said. Those items were excavated in the 1920s and 30s from the American Southwest, Meister said.