2015 ATALM Museum Summit: NAGPRA, legal rights and protection of Indigenous cultural materials

In this session, Native American attorney, tribal judge, author, activist and law professor Walter Ecohawk, looks at the legal evolution of the relationship between Native communities and museums in the US. He provides an overview of the legal frameworks that recognize the fundamental right of Indigenous peoples to establish legal rights and protection for their cultural materials, including the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and other national and international agreements. He looks at how effective these laws/agreements are, what changes need to be made, and model programs in other nations that the US might want to follow. This presentation was part of the Museum Summit during the pre-conference activities for the 2015 ATALM annual conference in Washington, DC on September 9, 2015.