SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WCIA) – When you walk inside the Illinois State Museum, you can see all kinds of exhibits connected to the state.
But some are covered up with a note reading, “Objects are removed from viewing for Tribal Consultation.”
It’s all because of changes to the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), a federal law that has been in place for more than three decades.
“One of the things that’s going to affect the museum is that the regulations state that you cannot necessarily display objects that are funerary objects, or sacred objects or objects of cultural patrimony without the express permission of the descendant communities,” Brooke Morgan, a curator of anthropology at the museum, said. “We need to meet with our tribal partners and talk about what they would like to see happen in those exhibits.”
The law requires museums and other organizations to identify Native American human remains as well as funerary and sacred items. Then, they must work with tribes and other Native American organizations to get the items back to where they belong.