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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 [First Page] [160], (1) Lines: 0 t ——— 0.0pt PgV ——— Normal P PgEnds: T [160], (1) 9. teaching indigenous cultural resource management Andrea A. Hunter Throughout the last century, American archaeology witnessed many changes in its professional mandate, and it has continued to expand in the methods practiced, technology used, and theories applied. For the most part, the discipline has been grounded in the paradigms of Western science in an effort to explain and understand humans’ past. Recently , Native Americans have challenged this single, scientific approach to studying past cultures. Native Americans contend that their perspectives and knowledge of the past are valid and should be acknowledged by the scientific community. Communication and amicable work relations between Native Americans and archaeologists are fairly recent phenomena . Since the 1960s, Native American and archaeology communities have been brought into contact through divergent and common interests in the preservation, management, and study of Native American ancestral sites, material remains, and human remains. The issues between these two communities center on various aspects of cultural heritage, that is, who owns the past, who manages the past, and who has the right to tell the stories about the past. Imbedded within these questions, particularly the question of who owns the past, is the concept of repatriation and protection of sacred ancestral sites and objects. The repatriation of human remains and sacred objects in the United States is a critical issue that has brought about a much-needed change in the methods and ethics in the discipline of anthropology. This change has resulted in our Native American communities having the legal right to prohibit excavation, analysis, and in some cases the destruction of their ancestor’s remains, sacred sites, and sacred objects. In 1989 and 1990, two landmark repatriation bills were passed by Congress : the National Museum of the American Indian (nmai) Act (20 USC indigenous cultural resource management 161 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 [161], (2) Lines: 41 to 48 ——— 0.0pt PgVar ——— Normal Page PgEnds: TEX [161], (2)§§ 80q-80q-15), which pertains to the Smithsonian Institution, and the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (nagpra, 25 USC §§ 3001–3013), which pertains to all federal agencies and institutions that receive federal monies. With the 1996 amendment to the nmai Act, both laws outlined procedures for the return of all Native American human remains, funerary objects, sacred objects, and objects of cultural patrimony. When the nmai Act was originally passed in 1989, there were no deadlines for the completion of the inventories of human remains and associated funerary objects. Instead, the law mandated a five-member review committee to monitor the process at the Smithsonian. In 1990, I was appointed to this committee from a nomination submitted by an Indian organization in Oklahoma. In this chapter I will discuss how my involvement in the Smithsonian’s repatriation process set the foundation for my participation in an international Indigenous cultural resource management project, and I will also investigate how these roles have affected the curriculum I teach as an anthropology professor of undergraduate and graduate students at Northern Arizona University (nau). I will also discuss what“Indigenizing the academy”means for archaeology and cultural resource management. Incorporating Indigenous Cultural Heritage and Cultural Resource Management Studies into the University Curriculum My role as a member on the Smithsonian’s Native American Repatriation Review Committee for over a decade, and as chair of the committee since 2001, has afforded me the opportunity to participate in the repatriation process on a national and international level. As an anthropology professor , I see it as my responsibility to teach students about federal and state repatriation law and how we must change our research agendas to operate in a more ethical manner by working with Indigenous communities and respecting Indigenous perspectives in cultural heritage preservation and management. Over the past decade, I have tremendously expanded class lectures in the undergraduate introductory and proseminar archaeology courses that relate to state and federal repatriation law and Indigenous cultural resource management. Liberal arts students, and particularly our anthropology majors...

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