Of all the influences on the evolution of museums in recent history, one of the most significant, yet underappreciated, is that of Native American peoples. In 1990, this activism helped drive passage of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA). Over the last two decades, NAGPRA has had notable effects on the way museums present and preserve their artifacts. In her essay “What is the Object of This Exercise? A Meandering Exploration of the Many Meanings of Objects in Museums,” historian Elaine Heumman Gurian argues that this activism has changed our understanding of what counts as a museum “artifact,” something that had previously been taken for granted as unproblematic. I was struck by the effort that indigenous communities have put forward in the last four decades to reclaim their own history and the manner in which they are represented in museums. What effects have Native American groups had on the development of museums, specifically in areas such as presentation and preservation in museums?

NAGPRA was enacted on November 16, 1990. This act deals with the issue of ownership of museum objects that were originally a part of Native American communities and culture, and is a result of a longstanding battle over the rights to certain artifacts, specifically the rights to Native American remains that museums were using for research and exhibit displays. This battle began in the 1970s with Maria Pearson, a member of the Yankton tribe located in South Dakota. Pearson is often credited as being the catalyst for the creation of NAGPRA because of her protests and appeals to the government after she witnessed the accidental digging up of Native American remains, which were then sent to a lab for research, rather than being reburied. NAGPRA maintains that museums and other federal institutions must return items such as human remains and other culturally significant items back to the tribe or descendants, unless the institutions receive permission to keep the items. In 1990, the notion that the museum was the sole owner of its artifacts was common and rarely disputed. NAGPRA challenged that idea, giving at least partial ownership of Native American artifacts to Native American communities and strengthening the influence of Native American culture on presentation and preservation in museums.

Objects are an integral component to the ways that museums build exhibits and present information to visitors. The cultures of many Native American tribes, however, are based in stories that are shared through songs and dances, not tangible objects such as paintings or books. In the 1990s, a new generation of activists and museum curators joined together to change museum methods of presentation, making techniques like performances, audio recordings, and videos much more prominent in museum exhibits, rather than material objects. Native American culture has also had a significant impact on the way some artifacts are preserved. Due to some Native Americans’ beliefs that objects, animate or inanimate, can have energies or life sources, museums have adapted their storage methods for these objects by providing them with adequate space for their energies to expand and other various requirements. Additionally, Native American communities introduced the idea of loaning spiritual items back to groups for specific events and ceremonies and then returning them to museums when the items were no longer needed. While museums initially rejected the idea of handing precious artifacts over to untrained groups, the concept of preservation has broadened in part due to Native American influence, and, while legal disputes still occur occasionally, museums like the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington D.C. participate in this process regularly.

With the help of NAGPRA, Native Americans have challenged museums for ownership of artifacts and had significant effects on the way museums present these artifacts and preserve them. This unprecedented increase in influence also raises the question: What have these indigenous communities done differently from other minority groups that has made their efforts so successful? Will this reclamation of public representation in museums help pave the way for Native Americans to do the same in other areas, such as popular culture and mascots for sports teams?