Background. On November 16, 1990 President George Bush signed into law the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA). Under NAGPRA, 1) agencies and museums that receive federal funding must inventory all Native American human remains and artifacts in their collections, and where known, notify the tribe of origin, and, at the tribe's request, return the items; 2) human remains or cultural items found on tribal or federal land are owned or controlled by the Indian tribes alone; 3) trafficking of Native American human remains and artifacts obtained in violation of the Act is prohibited; and 4) all federal agencies or private museums which receive federal funs are required to compile a summary of unassociated funerary objects, sacred objects, or objects of cultural patrimony in their collection, to be returned to the tribe who can prove cultural affiliation, prior ownership or control, and evidence that the museum did not acquire the item with the legal consent of the owner.

On August 28, 1993 the Sac and Fox Nation Governing Council directed the Business Committee to gather information from tribal elders and clan chiefs concerning tribal customs and traditions and created the Repatriation Committee with 15 members. In August 1994 Governing Council under Public Law SF/GC 96-01 created and funded the Repatriation Department and limited membership on the Repatriation Committee to seven.

The Repatriation/NAGPRA Committee has also been designed as the Cultural Resources Committee and its members are Chairman Elvis E. Ellis, Vice-Chairman Jacob Manatowa Bailey, Secretary/Treasurer Henrietta Massey, and Members Richard Walker, Josh Williamson and Sandra Kaye Massey.

The NAGPRA Office is staffed by NAGPRA Coordinator Sandra Kaye Massey and is under the supervision of Marianne Long, Realty/Community Services Director. Massey can be contacted at (918) 968-3526 ext. 1048 and the fax number is (918) 968-4837.

The NAGPRA office also implements the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) and other related laws pertaining to the protection of our historic and sacred sites.

Sac and Fox NAGPRA Confederacy. The Sac and Fox Nation of Oklahoma, the Sac and Fox Tribe of the Mississippi in Iowa, and the Sac and Fox Nation of the Missouri in Kansas established the Sac and Fox NAGPRA Confederacy (SFNC) in January 1999. The NAGPRA Confederacy allows the three individual tribal governments who have shared a cultural history to present a united front to the museums and agencies in regard to NAGPRA affairs. In addition, the regular contact between all three Sac and Fox NAGPRA departments assures that any information provided to one will be provided to all three. The Sac and Fox NAGPRA Confederacy created a Policy Statement, Mission Statement, Reburial Guidelines, and Bundle Guidelines for distribution to all museum and agency contacts. Each Sac and Fox NAGPRA Department hosts a meeting of the SFNC during the year.