Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act: After Almost 20 Years, Key Federal Agencies Still Have Not Fully Complied with the Act

The U.S. Department of Agriculture submitted a needs assessment to Congress on May 18, 2012. The needs assessment indentifies four regions of the U.S. Forest Service that need to complete inventory and summary work at a total cost of $205,000. Tasks include reviewing collections, identifying objects, completing consultations with Native American Tribes, and submitting notices for publication in the Federal Register.

The Tennessee Valley Authority submitted a needs assessment to Congress on June 9, 2011. The needs assessment provided annual actions for fiscal years 2011 through 2020 and estimated a total cost of $2.5 million to achieve the actions over this nine year period.

In June 2011, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) issued a needs assessment. In the assessment, the Corps estimated that it would need about $12 million over 10 years to complete its remaining NAGPRA work for its historical collections. Although the Corps' proposed needs assessment was not submitted to Congress, the Corps has been implementing the plan and it is in the 4th year of the 10 year plan. The Corps (1) was a top agency for its NAGPRA work in our 2010 report, (2) has most of the NAGPRA items within the Department of Defense, (3) developed a needs assessment, and (4) has actively continued its NAGPRA activities in accordance with its needs assessment. Moreover, though they have much smaller collections than the Corps, other services within the Department of Defense have also continued to actively publish notices of inventory completion for culturally affiliated NAGPRA items in the Federal Register.

The Department of the Interior submitted a needs assessment to Congress on September 7, 2011. The needs assessment identifies the actions to be taken by six bureaus within the Department and states that Interior bureaus and offices currently utilize $1.42 million for NAGPRA activities and require an additional $3.34 million annually and a minimum of 8 years to complete specific tasks. Tasks include hiring new staff to work on repatriation activities, identifying unknown and unreported collections, and preparing and publishing notices in the Federal Register.

The Department of the Interior submitted a timetable to Congress on September 7, 2011. In the timetable, Interior bureaus estimate that all culturally affiliated human remains and associated funerary objects would be published in the Federal Register by the end of calendar year 2012.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture submitted a timetable to Congress on May 18, 2012. The timetable identifies five regions of the U.S Forest Service and the various timeframes in which they would submit notices of inventory completion for publication in the Federal Register. The timeframes range from within 4 months to within 24 months of funds being made available.

The Tennessee Valley Authority submitted a timetable to Congress on June 9, 2011. In the timetable, TVA estimates that it would submit notices for culturally affiliated NAGPRA items held at the Alabama Museum of Natural History by fiscal year 2014 and that it would submit notices for any remaining culturally affiliated NAGPRA items by fiscal year 2016.

In March 2011, the Department of the Interior stated that in 2008 a new Designated Federal Officer to the NAGPRA Review Committee was appointed by the National Park Service and new procedures were put in place, including those to nominate members to the committee. The department also provided two notices in the Federal Register soliciting nominations for the Review Committee and a briefing paper discussing the nominees and the appointment process. Since that time, we continued to monitor the nomination process and have reviewed the Federal Register notices for Review Committee vacancies along with other information provided by the Department of the Interior and have found that the department has adhered to its nomination process as prescribed in the act.

The Department of Defense (DOD) provided to National NAGPRA repatriation data. This data was included in the NAGPRA Review Committee's 2010 and 2011 Annual Reports to Congress and in National NAGPRA's Fiscal Year 2011 Interim and Final Reports. All of these documents are publicly available on National NAGPRA's website. DOD reports that, as of September 30, 2011, it had repatriated 2,751 human remains of the 2,840 human remains listed in notices. For associated funerary objects, DOD reports that it had repatriated 50,923 of the 53,877 associated funerary objects listed in notices.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) provided repatriation data to National NAGPRA. This data was included in the NAGPRA Review Committee's 2010 and 2011 Annual Reports to Congress and in National NAGPRA's Fiscal Year 2011 Interim and Final Reports. All of these documents are publicly available on National NAGPRA's website. USDA reports that, as of September 30, 2011, it had repatriated 1,032 human remains of the 5,355 human remains listed in notices. For associated funerary objects, USDA reports that it had repatriated 16,951 of the 34,322 associated funerary objects listed in notices.

The Department of the Interior provided repatriation data to National NAGPRA. This data was included in the NAGPRA Review Committee's 2010 and 2011 Annual Reports to Congress and in National NAGPRA's Fiscal Year 2011 Interim and Final Reports. All of these documents are publicly available on National NAGPRA's website. Interior reports that, as of September 30, 2011, it had repatriated 6,057 human remains of the 7,276 human remains listed in notices. For associated funerary objects, Interior reports that it had repatriated 67,104 of the 118,617 associated funerary objects listed in notices.

In June 2011, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) issued a needs assessment. In the assessment, the Corps stated that the timetable recommendation was not applicable to it because, at that time, it had no culturally affiliated NAGPRA items that had not been published in a Notice of Inventory Completion in the Federal Register. Further, although the Department of Defense has not developed and provided to Congress a timetable, it has actively continued to publish notices of inventory completion in the Federal Register as items have been identified or affiliated. While the Department of Defense still has some older culturally affiliated items that have not been covered in a notice, the department has published the majority of them.

Interior's Office of the Solicitor issued a memorandum in March 2011 that concludes that NAGPRA does not include ANCSA corporations within its definition of Indian tribes and that National NAGPRA must not include them in their list. Furthermore, on July 5, 2011, Interior published an interim final rule in the Federal Register that removed the definition of "Indian tribe" from the NAGPRA regulations because it was inconsistent with the statutory definition of the term.

In June 2011, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) submitted a letter to Congress with its responses to our recommendations. Speaking of this particular recommendation, TVA stated that it is committed to following the practice of providing all notices of inventory completion to the National NAGPRA staff within the Department of the Interior on a regular basis. Since June 2011, TVA has published several Notices of Inventory Completion and Notices of Intent to Repatriate in the Federal Register. Furthermore, TVA reported their repatriation data to National NAGPRA who, in turn, included the information in their 2013 annual report and the Review Committee included this information in their annual report to Congress.