A Long road home: NAGPRA efforts facilitate return of cultural objects to Choctaw Nation

For centuries, the graves of Indigenous people have been subjected to questionable collection methods, looting and other disruptive practices. Thankfully, however, the tide seems to be turning away from the colonialist attitudes of the past toward a future where tribes and federally-funded institutions work together to return tribal ancestors and their belongings to their rightful owners.

In 1990, Congress signed the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, or NAGPRA, into law. NAGPRA requires certain institutions to repatriate or transfer human remains, funerary objects, sacred objects and objects of cultural patrimony to lineal descendants, Native American tribes, Alaska Native Corporations and Native Hawaiian organizations. Federal agencies, museums, universities, state agencies, local governments and any other institution that receives federal funding are bound to comply with the law.

One of the catalysts for the establishment of NAGPRA was the excavation of a cemetery where people from various ethnic groups were buried. Most of the remains were exhumed and ultimately reburied, but many of the Native American remains were placed in a collection and never reburied.

“It’s because of that different standard that NAGPRA was ultimately created,” said Dr. Ian Thompson, Senior Director of Historic Preservation for the Choctaw Nation.

For the past 32 years, tribes and Indigenous organizations across the United States have worked to reclaim important cultural objects and bring the bodies of their ancestors home for reburial, but the road home has not always been a smooth one.

According to Tribal Chaplin and Choctaw elder Olin Williams, “NAGPRA opened our eyes to what history did to our people.”

In the beginning, it was common for objects or human remains to be labeled “culturally unidentifiable,” meaning they could not be linked to a specific Native culture and therefore could not be returned. In addition, communication and collaboration between tribes and the institutions housing these artifacts and remains could be inconsistent or downright nonexistent.

Changes are on the horizon for NAGPRA, though. Lawmakers have acknowledged an imbalance of power in the original law that made repatriation more difficult for tribal nations. Revisions to timelines and communication policies will require institutions to work more closely with tribes in the future.

The Choctaw Nation’s NAGPRA efforts are coordinated through the office of the NAGPRA Liaison and the No Stone Unturned project. Established in 2018, the No Stone Unturned project set out to locate and repatriate any Choctaw objects or human remains located in institutions across the United States.

Deanna Byrd is the NAGPRA Liaison for the Choctaw Nation’s Historical Preservation Department. A large part of her job is to build relationships with institutions that may house Choctaw items. These relationships encourage open dialogue and collaboration on NAGPRA cases and to help institutions understand items in their collections that do not fall under the NAGPRA umbrella.

According to Byrd, NAGPRA was “essentially legislation that opened up conversations that Native American communities were never able to have before, so that we could understand exactly where our ancestors are.”

During Phase 1 of No Stone Unturned, Byrd went state by state, contacting every federally-funded institution to set up consultations and do research into any Choctaw holdings the institutions may have. As of publication, she has completed all but six states and established hundreds of relationships over the past few years. Currently, Byrd is working with 66 institutions through the NAGPRA process.

Many of the items returned to the Choctaw Nation are related to human remains and funerary objects, but some artifacts fall into the categories of sacred objects or objects of cultural patrimony. Recently, the NAGPRA committee worked with the Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa to transfer ownership of the pipe Chief Greenwood LeFlore smoked at the signing of the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek in 1830 to the Choctaw Nation permanently. The pipe is considered an object of cultural patrimony, meaning it cannot be separated from the tribe as a whole.

The No Stone Unturned project has also led to the development of a Care and Trust Agreement document specific to the Choctaw Nation. This document, which is an important exercise in tribal sovereignty, identifies protocols and policies dealing with the treatment of Choctaw human remains that align with traditional spiritual and burial practices.

“It’s heavy work,” said Byrd in a blog post from October 2022. She added that it is easy to get caught up in the passion of the project and forget that this is multi-generational work that will not be completed in our lifetime, or even our children’s lifetime.

Choctaw elder and tribal traditionalist Les Willison said, “The process itself is meticulous; it’s mind boggling. There’s roadblocks; there’s papers with i’s to dot and all of that stuff.”
The time commitment is only one facet of NAGPRA work. The mental, emotional and spiritual impact of repatriation is also significant.

Williston commented on the devastating effects of disturbing the graves of Choctaw ancestors: “As our ancestors lay in rest, they got their bones disturbed. Their earthly remains are not being respected, not being left to rest.”

Initially, the reburial process raised some important questions. Since the dead were never meant to be disturbed, the Choctaw people had no traditional ceremony for reburial.

“It wasn’t something we thought we were going to have to do. I mean, who grows up thinking that they’re going to have to rebury their grandma?” said Misty Madbull, Program Manager for the Historic Preservation Department.

The solution was to leave the matter to the traditional religious leaders who were conducting the burials. A NAGPRA advisory board made up of Oklahoma Choctaw elders, spiritual leaders and cultural experts has been in place since 2009 to guide the Historic Preservation Department on NAGPRA cases and to ensure Choctaw human remains and artifacts are handled properly.

In describing what it felt like to be part of the reburial process, Williston said, “I didn’t know when I climbed into that grave what it was going to feel like to take these bones of our ancestors and put them in the grave, one by one. When you get them handed to you and you pick them up, you feel that energy.”

The weight of the situation was certainly not lost on Williston. “I broke down. I couldn’t help it. I couldn’t stop it,” he said. “It was a powerful time, and I’ll never forget it.”

One goal of the Choctaw Nation’s NAGPRA effort is to bring peace to Choctaw ancestors by returning them to their original burial sites with their funerary objects in place, but this goal sometimes presents a daunting challenge.

“Our sacred objects were taken out of our sacred sites and held in institutions,” said Williams. Funerary objects were often separated from the people when graves were excavated, and while some can be returned, others have gone missing.

Going through an inventory is a profound experience for Byrd and Madbull, and they are grateful to have each other to lean on during the process.

“It’s something that I don’t think you could do alone,” said Madbull. “We sit, we talk, we cry and then we pray. Really just to let the ancestors know that we’re trying our best, and we’re going to do our best to help them have peace.”

Byrd added, “Praying with Misty in the repositories with our ancestors and keeping our promise to bring them home, that’s the best part of our work.”

There is still a lot of work to be done on the NAGPRA front for the Choctaw Nation, but Dr. Thompson recognizes that there has been significant progress as well, including coalitions between tribes and the repatriation of many ancestors for reburial.

Byrd also acknowledges the efforts of those who work for the institutions that have housed these items. She noted that “those on the other end of the telephone and email correspondence come to the conversation with deep sadness for the past, willingness to work with the tribes and the passion to move forward with consultation leading to repatriation.” She is encouraged to see the changing attitudes toward NAGPRA work and that institutions are willing to work on new policies that help ensure nothing like this ever happens again.

The Choctaw people have always placed great emphasis on the care of loved ones, even after they have passed away. Byrd mentioned that people are constantly asking what they can do to help the NAGPRA efforts at the Choctaw Nation. While the reburial ceremonies are closed to the public to protect the dignity of the ancestors and honor the sacred nature of the ceremony, there is one simple, yet powerful thing people can do.

“Pray,” says Byrd. “Pray for the process. Pray for the ancestors that they will be at peace.”
For more information on NAGPRA and the efforts to repatriate Choctaw remains and cultural objects, see the NAGPRA: No Stone Unturned video or visit the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.

Another resource is the NAGPRA Community of Practice, whose mission is “to share experiences, concerns, and successes to decrease misunderstanding and hesitancy and to foster relationships and healing.” This group hosts video calls on the second and fourth Fridays of each month to share developments and create connections among practitioners. Learn more about this organization at nagpracommunityofpractice.com.

The Choctaw Cultural Center also hosts the online database Chahta Imponna at hinahanta.choctawnation.com, where visitors can browse through cultural collections and see photos of non-funerary cultural items.