Mesa Verde National Park to Repatriate 85 Ancestral Remains and 4,300 Sacred Objects to Native American Tribes
Mesa Verde National Park is preparing for its largest potential repatriation in recorded history, involving the return of 85 Indigenous human remains and 4,304 sacred objects. This initiative follows a two-year inventory process and aligns with the 1990 federal law known as the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA). The collection includes various items such as ceramic bowls, animal bones, feather boxes, crystals, turquoise, buckskin bags, and items made of human hair. The National Park Service published a Notice of Inventory Completion in the Federal Register on July 31, allowing tribal members or tribes to submit formal repatriation requests. These remains and objects may be connected to tribes in Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado. The park, established in 1906, contains nearly 5,000 documented Ancestral Puebloan sites. This effort is part of a broader federal push, including revised NAGPRA regulations that took effect on January 12, 2024, which eliminated the 'culturally uniden...