The indianapolis museum of art at newfields (IMA) requests a grant to undertake a comprehensive consultationprocess in accordance with the native american graves protection and repatriation act…

The Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields (IMA) was awarded a $100,000 Project Grant from the National Park Service's Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) Grant Program. The grant will fund a comprehensive consultation process to review the museum's Native Arts of the Americas collection, which includes 1,515 cultural items potentially comprising unassociated funerary objects, sacred objects, and objects of cultural patrimony. The IMA will work with three subject matter experts to engage with lineal descendants, Native American tribes, and Native Hawaiian organizations to determine cultural affiliation and facilitate repatriations as appropriate. The project aims to create an updated NAGPRA summary, notify relevant parties, update collections records, and develop a process for prioritizing and executing repatriations. This work will help the IMA achieve greater NAGPRA compliance and enhance its ability to responsibly steward its Native cultural holdings.

The indianapolis museum of art at newfields (IMA) requests a grant to undertake a comprehensive consultationprocess in accordance with the native american graves protection and repatriation act (nagpra). The consultationprocess will involve engaging with lineal descendants, native american tribes, and native hawaiian organizationsto review objects in the IMA collection, respectful treatment of the native american cultural items, andfacilitate repatriations. The IMA will work with three consultants whose areas of expertise cover easternwoodlands, great lakes, great plains, northwest coast, alaska native, and southwest. Consultants were involved indefining the project scope and will be crucial in identifying tribes or organizations that should be consultedthrough the project to further determine cultural affiliation and nagpra classification of specific objects.included in the museums native arts of the americas collection are 1,515 native cultural items which potentiallyinclude unassociated funerary objects, sacred objects, and objects of cultural patrimony. The IMA believes theseobjects represent a range of cultural affiliations including alaska native, eastern woodlands, great plains, northeast, northwest, southeast, and southwest. Included among these are 993 objects for which no culturalaffiliation has been established. The next steps for the IMA to achieve greater nagpra compliance will be to review all 1,515 objects in the nativearts of the americas collection with tribal consultants in the museums collection. After doing so, the IMA willcreate an updated nagpra summary of the objects in the museums collection and will publish IT to the nationalparks service nagpra summaries database. IMA staff will send a mailing to all lineal descendants, native americantribes, and native hawaiian organizations, including the updated summary and key changes. The project team willprioritize follow-up with tribes that have previously contacted the museum but for which no native objects wereculturally identified at the time to inform them of any relevant changes. The project team will contributeinformation about the museums nagpra holdings to collaborative databases to more proactively facilitate ease ofaccess to information for lineal descendants, native american tribes, and native hawaiian organizations seekingrepatriation.after these notifications, staff will update IMA collections records in the collection management system, KE-EMU, with cultural affiliation and nagpra classification details to ensure continuity of nagpra compliance andrepatriation expediency. The team will develop a process document outlining next steps for repatriating itemsidentified as top priorities and or for which relevant lineal descendants, native american tribes, and nativehawaiian organizations have expressed interest in repatriating in response to notifications. As needed, IMA staffmembers will develop treatment plans for items in need of decontamination, traditional care, and or storage plansfor items that will remain in the imas collection for the present time and until a request for repatriationmoves forward.