NAGPRA – Turtle Talk

Indian Law at the Movies: Aanikoobijigan and the Law of Bringing Ancestors Home

October 10, 2026September 16, 2026Wenona Singel

Aanikoobijigan, a new documentary by Ojibwe filmmakers Adam and Zack Khalil, follows the Michigan Anishinaabek Cultural Preservation and Repatriation Alliance as Tribal repatriation specialists work to bring Ancestors and funerary belongings home from museums and universities, including Michigan State University.

NAGPRA provides the legal framework, but the film also asks how these institutions came to possess Native human remains in the first place, and what this means for Tribes seeking to bring their relatives home.

Aanikoobijigan won the NEXT Audience Award at Sundance.

Michigan readers will have two upcoming opportunities to see it: October 12 at the Michigan Theater in Ann Arbor, and Friday, October 16 at MSU’s Broad Art Museum as part of the Underground Film Festival.

MSU is also tentatively planning a daytime screening and Tribal panel around the film, along with additional NAGPRA education and awareness programming for Native American Heritage Month. MSU’s NAGPRA office is also preparing a history of the university’s NAGPRA compliance for release in connection with that programming.

Further reading

Sundance Institute, Space and Time Aren’t Linear in “Aanikoobijigan [ancestor/great-grandparent/great-grandchild]”

Aanikoobijigan Press Kit

Native American Graves Protection & Repatriation Committee Review Committee FY2026 Annual Report

October 1, 2026Matthew L.M. Fletcher

FY2026 Review Committee Report to Congress_FINAL (9-30-2026)Download

Worth a Read: After more than a century, Fort Peck children are coming home from Carlisle

September 9, 2026September 2, 2026Wenona Singel

The Fort Peck Journal has provided community-centered coverage of the return of three Fort Peck children who were sent to the Carlisle Indian Industrial School together in 1890 and died there.

Louis H. Montclair’s coverage documents how the Fort Peck community has prepared to bring the children home through family participation, an awareness walk across the reservation, the Orange Flag Project, community prayers, and ceremony.

Peter Howe and Richard Morgan Disinterred at Carlisle; Christine Redstone Next by Louis H. Montclair for Fort Peck Journal, Sept. 1, 2026

After More Than a Century, Fort Peck Children Are Coming Home From Carlisle by Louis H. Montclair for Fort Peck Journal, September 1, 2026

From a Phone Screen to Carlisle: How the Orange Flag Project Took on a Life of Its Own by Louis H. Montclair for Fort Peck Journal, September 1, 2026

Fort Peck Tribal Executive Board member Melvin Scott smudges the Carlisle Indian Cemetery on Sept. 1 ahead of the scheduled disinterments of Peter Howe and Richard Morgan. The Fort Peck delegation traveled to Carlisle, Pennsylvania, to bring home three Fort Peck children who died after being sent to the Carlisle Indian Industrial School. Photo from Fort Peck Journal.

In Victory for Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska v. The Army, the 4th Circuit Confirms NAGPRA Applies to Carlisle

May 14, 2026May 14, 2026Matthew Campbell

Here is the Fourth Circuit’s decision vacating the lower court’s dismissal and holding that the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) applies in Winnebago v. Department of the Army.

Winnebago v. Army Download

The ruling allows the Tribe to proceed with its lawsuit against the U.S. Army seeking repatriation of the remains of Samuel Gilbert and Edward Hensley, two Winnebago boys who died at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School more than 125 years ago.

The Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska’s Chairman, Chairman Brown stated, “The Fourth Circuit’s ruling brings joy to the Tribe. As the Court recognized, it would be a disservice to find NAGPRA does not protect the Winnebago’s right to bring home Samuel Gilbert and Edward Hensley for proper burials, according to our traditional practices. NAGPRA is an important statute our relatives fought for and is meant to “address the desires of Indians to bury their dead,” a right “for too long ignored.”

NARF Senior Staff Attorney Beth Margaret Wright explains, “Winnebago’s lawsuit demonstrates its commitment to honor its ancestors and its children; Winnebago continues to advocate for its rights under NAGPRA to bring Samuel and Edward home and provide them with the Tribal burials they were denied over 125 years ago. The Fourth Circuit recognized that Congress enacted NAGPRA as a remedy for this ‘shameful injustice.’”

“This is an extraordinarily important decision not only for the Winnebago Tribe, but for Tribal Nations across the country seeking to ensure that federal agencies finally comply with the laws enacted to help address the profound and multigenerational trauma inflicted by the federal Indian boarding school system,” said Greg Werkheiser of Cultural Heritage Partners, co-counsel for the Tribe.

More here. Previous post here.

Trevor Reed on NAGPRA

April 13, 2026Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Trevor Reed has posted “The Intangible NAGPRA,” forthcoming in the Maryland Law Review, on SSRN.

Here is the abstract:

Following a 2023 regulatory update, the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (“NAGPRA”) of 1990, which recognizes Tribal Nations’ ownership interests in their ancestors and artifacts, now expressly includes a controversial public display right that has shuttered museum displays across the country. Though functionally similar to widely criticized provisions of Italian cultural heritage law, I argue that the new regulations are justifiable given the unique status of Tribal Nations in U.S. constitutional law and Congress’s intent to negotiate a remedy for long-standing human rights abuses. Indeed, the Intangible NAGPRA is precisely what Tribal representatives on the Congressionally mandated year-long Panel for a National Dialogue on Museum/Native American Relations believed they were working toward in the lead-up to NAGPRA’s passage. Thus, this paper encourages the continued exercise of Indigenous peoples’ rights to protect their ancestors, belongings, sacred and cultural materials and the corresponding intellectual property rights that pertain to them.

Alex Pearl on NAGPRA

November 18, 2025Matthew L.M. Fletcher

M. Alexander Pearl has published “Corporeal Property and the Limits of NAGPRA” in the Fordham Law Review.

Here is an excerpt:

The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act represents a pivotal but incomplete legislative effort to confront the enduring legacy of colonialism in the United States. NAGPRA addresses a specific and deeply troubling consequence of colonialism: the unlawful appropriation of Native American ancestors and cultural items by federal and federally funded institutions. Although it lays a critical foundation for repatriation and a sense of cultural justice, NAGPRA’s effectiveness is constrained by its grounding in Western legal traditions—especially its emphasis on corporeal, material property. To redress a wider range of harms suffered by Native communities, we must look beyond the statute’s current framework and embrace an expanded understanding of property, one that includes intangible rights based
in cultural harms and rights.

Michalyn Steele on NAGPRA and Protecting Sacred Sites

November 5, 2025Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Michalyn Steele has posted “The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act as a Model of Cultural Sovereignty for Protecting Indigenous Sacred Sites” on SSRN.

Here is the abstract:

This Essay argues that NAGPRA provides a model for reassessing how to measure sacred site protection against competing values. Part I briefly maps the scope and history of Indigenous dispossession of sacred sites that has resulted in the unique challenges Indigenous people face in gaining access to and protection of these sites. Part II illustrates the values that most frequently compete with (and defeat) sacred site access and protection claims. Finally, Part III argues that NAGPRA offers a case study for reordering these values to recognize and prioritize the human rights and religious interests of Indigenous peoples in their sacred sites.