Cultural Property of Native Americans & Related Federal Laws
Occupying North America for millennia before the arrival of Europeans, Native American tribes developed rich cultures that deserve respect and protection. Cultural resources may consist of tangible objects, such as instruments of worship or burial vessels, or they may consist of intangible traditions and symbols. Layers of laws at federal, state, and tribal levels protect tribal resources to varying degrees. However, their protections are incomplete, and enforcement is inconsistent, resulting in threats to the survival of some tribal cultures.
One of the main federal laws protecting Native American cultural property is the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) of 1990. Under this law, tribes and their descendants received the right to repatriate various items of cultural property from museums and the federal government. These include:
- Human remains
- Funerary objects: items that contained human remains for burial, or were placed with human remains
- Sacred objects: ceremonial items that are necessary for the current practice of traditional Native American religions
- Objects of cultural patrimony: items owned by an entire tribe, which would have been inalienable when leaving tribal possession
In the same year, Congress enacted the Indian Arts & Crafts Act to ban the sale of items that are falsely marketed as being made by Native Americans. While the law is well-intentioned, a combination of lenient penalties and inconsistent enforcement has left it somewhat toothless. These violations continue to occur throughout the US.
Preserving Native American Languages
One of the least tangible yet most central parts of Native American culture is language. This plays an important role in the identity of any cultural group. Many tribal languages have become extinct or face extinction, according to UNESCO and the National Congress of American Indians. The threat of extinction has arisen in part from assimilation programs, such as boarding schools in which Native American children were placed for much of the 19th and 20th centuries. The federal government used these schools to separate Native American children from their parents and integrate them into European-American culture.
Immersion schools and programs can help ward off extinction by providing Native American children with fluency in their tribal language at an early age. Fluency among children helps a language survive for many generations, and they can pass it to their descendants. Immersion schools are extremely costly, though. Some tribes cannot afford to operate them without substantial federal funding and operational support, which so far have not materialized.
Stereotypes and Cultural Defamation
Stereotypes about Native American tribes and individuals have riddled European-American culture in the US since its beginnings. These perpetuate misconceptions about Native American culture and encourage other Americans to see tribes as inherently inferior or "backward." At best, stereotypes prevent cross-cultural respect and understanding. At worst, they can encourage discrimination against Native Americans.
One of the most visible forms of stereotypes involves the names and mascots of sports teams at college and professional levels. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), which governs American college sports, condemned disparaging Native American-themed mascots in 2005. Some college team names and mascots refer to a specific tribe, who may negotiate an agreement with a university that allows the team to preserve its traditional identity while respecting tribal culture. However, many derogatory team names and mascots have been eliminated, most notably the name and mascot of the NFL team based in Washington, DC. At the end of 2020, the MLB team in Cleveland also announced that it would alter its name following the 2021 season.
