The National Park Service has announced grants designed to return Native American artifacts and human remains. As Arizona Public Radio’s Ryan Heinsius reports, among the recipients is an eastern Arizona tribe.
The White Mountain Apache will receive $15,000 as part of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. The funds will help tribes and museums catalog and return items to descendants or tribes and organizations.
In all, 29 grants totaling more than a $1.5 million will be distributed for 2014. Other recipients are the Chicago-based Field Museum’s Hopi Collection, which will net nearly $90,000, as well as Western New Mexico University Museum and Regents University of Colorado. Tribe recipients include the Fallon Paiute Shoshone of Nevada and the Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma.
According to National Park Service director Jonathan Jarvis, the program is designed to correct the historical mistreatment of Native Americans. He says more than 10,000 human remains and a million sacred objects have been returned as part of the act since 1990.