Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 10, Number 2, 1 February 1993 — Repatriation committee meets on Oʻahu [ARTICLE]

Repatriation committee meets on Oʻahu

The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Review Committee has scheduled its next meeting for Feb. 26-27 on O'ahu. The sevenmember committee was authorized by Congress in 1990 to assist the implementation of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA). This federal legislation addresses the rights of lineal descendants and members of lndian tribes and native Hawaiian organizations to certain Native American human remains and cultural items with whieh they are affiliated. The committee will meet Friday, Feb. 26 at Bernice P. Bishop Museum, 1525 Bernice St. in Honolulu. Topics for discussion: a dispute between Hui Mālama I Nā Kūpuna O Hawai'i Nei and the P.A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology of Berkeley, California over the

repatriation of two sets of human remains. The commitee will meet the next day, Saturday, Feb. 27, at the Turtle Bay Hilton, 57-091 Kamehameha Highway in Kahuku. Topics for discussion are: 1) progress made and barriers encountered in implementing the statute in Hawai'i, and 2) the committee's 1992 report to Congress. The committee is particularly interested in hearing from representatives of native Hawaiian organizations, museums and federal agencies and from members of the public on issues related to identification of native Hawaiian cultural items and the determination of cultural affiliation. If this agenda is not completed, the committee will continue the meeting Sunday, Feb. 28 at the Turtle Bay Hilton. Meetings will begin eaeh day at 8:30 a.m. and conclude by 5 p.m. Meetings are open to the

public, though space is limited to a first-come, first-seated basis. Any member of the public may file a written statement eoncerning these matters with Dr. Francis P. MeManamon, departmental consuting archeologist. For further information eoncerning the meeting or to submit written statements, contact Dr. Francis P. MeManamon, Departmental Consulting Archeologist, Archeological Assistance Division, National Park Service, P.O. Box 37127, Washington, D.C. 20013-7127; telephone (202) 343-4101, FAX (202) 523-1547. The seven committee members are: — Rachel Craig, an Inupiaq native from Kotzebue, Alaska, who has been active in efforts throughout Alaska to save native cultural traditions; — Dr. Jonathan Haas, vice president for collections and

research at the Field Museum Natural History in Chicago; — Dan Monroe, president of the Peabody and Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts, who played a leading role for the American Association of Museums in the development of legislation that led to the statute; — Dr. Martin Sullivan, director of the Heard Museum, Phoenix, Arizona, who has been active at the nahonal and regional levels in repatriation issues; — William Tallbull, a Northern Cheyenne native, the Northern Cheyenne tribal historian from Lame Deer, Montana; and — Dr. Phillip Walker, a physical anthropologist in the Department of Anthropology, University of California at Santa Barbara, who also serves as chair of the task force on repatriation of the Society for American Archeology.