Morrill Hall will be open normal hours Saturday, April 26. However, there will be no parking available in the normal spaces outside the museum due to the Husker Games occurring at Memorial Stadium. The east side ADA parking will be available, but guests using those spaces will be required to pay the UNL parking and transit services game day parking fee. Parking will return to normal on Sunday, April 27.

Our Family of Museums:

NAGPRA

Native American Graves Repatriation Act

What is Nagpra?

On November 16, 1990, Congress passed the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, known as NAGPRA. This expansive law establishes a process of repatriation, or the return of cultural items and human remains from museums to the proper Native American Tribe.

Additional information about the National NAGPRA program can be found here: https://www.nps.gov/orgs/1335/whatwedo.htm.

NAGPRA at UNSM

The University of Nebraska State Museum is dedicated to following the legal process and embracing the ethical foundations of NAGPRA. The UNSM has returned numerous human remains and associated funerary objects and continues to consult on human remains of unknown affiliation with the intent to repatriate. Additionally UNSM works toward repatriation of objects of cultural patrimony, unaffiliated funerary objects, and sacred objects through consultation.

As part of the UNSM dedication to NAGPRA, the museum implemented a Moratorium on New Studies of Native American Human Remains and Funerary Objects. This moratorium protects Native American ancestors and funerary items from further disturbance or research. The moratorium can be read in full in the UNSM Collection Management Policy: https://museum.unl.edu/file_download/inline/d2d3ff04-7e3d-437a-ae1e-08423a876078.

In 2021 and 2022 UNSM updated its 1993 NAGPRA Summaries and Inventory as part of our NAGPRA goals. These most recent version of the Summary and Inventory can be made available upon request. We welcome inquiries from all Tribal Nations. 

To make an on-site or virtual consultation request, please contact unsm-nagpra@unl.edu

Land Acknowledgement:
The University of Nebraska State Museum acknowledges that we are part of the land-grant institution University of Nebraska with museums, campuses, and programs on the past, present, and future homelands of the Pawnee, Ponca, Oto-Missouria, Omaha, Dakota, Lakota, Arapaho, Cheyenne, and Kaw peoples, as well as the relocated Ho-Chunk, Iowa, and Sac and Fox Peoples.

NAGPRA Coordinator: 
Dr. Susan Weller

NAGPRA Project Manager: 
Taylor Ronquillo

NAGPRA Assistant: 
Katelyn McMullin