TOPEKA (KSNT) – The Kansas State Historical Society (KSHS) is making repatriation boxes in an effort to bring items and remains back to their original communities.
According to the National Parks Service, the Native American Graves Protections and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) federally mandates the return of human remains and cultural items related to indigenous people who originally inhabited the U.S. Under NAGPRA, the KSHS works with tribal partners to return the remains of people back to their tribes. This federal law has protected the process since 1990.
We spoke to KSHS State Archeologist Nikki Klarmann who said repatriation boxes are used to return these individuals and items to their communities.
“What we’ve been led by our tribal partners who are sovereign nations in this process is to provide repatriation supplies,” Klarmann said. “So, boxes in this case, what we’re talking about are either cedar or pine, that we can return these ancestors back to their communities.”
Klarmann said the KSHS commissions woodworkers to create these boxes and ensure they are made with proper care. One of these woodworkers is Tim Vincent at Community Woodworking Co.
“Whatever artifacts are going into these boxes, I wanna honor the tribes and how I do it,” Vincent said. “So, it takes a little extra special care to do something like this in the right way and do it in a way that honors them.”
Vincent said the process typically takes around two to three hours and is currently working on an order of 50 repatriation boxes.
“It’s a really hard process because there are people that you are identifying and returning to their communities, but it’s also very important and rewarding process because we’re kind of writing some of these generational wrongs,” Vincent said. “Like no matter how those individuals were found, we wish that they could stay where they were found, but that doesn’t always happen and now we can return them respectfully to their communities.”
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The repatriation efforts are ongoing, and the KSHS asks for donations to help these remains and items back to their community. To donate or to find more information about it, click here.
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