Wyoming Archaeologists Sue BLM Over Native American Sites and Human Remains
The Wyoming Association of Professional Archaeologists has filed a lawsuit against Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, the U.S. Department of the Interior, and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) offices in Wyoming and Colorado. The lawsuit, filed on July 24, challenges the BLM's interpretation and implementation of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA). The archaeologists argue that the BLM has overstepped its authority by expanding the boundaries of NAGPRA beyond what Congress intended. The case involves six archaeological sites, five in Wyoming and one in Colorado, where human remains and cultural items have been discovered. The archaeologists claim that recent rule changes by the BLM have led to the misclassification of items as funerary objects, which they argue could hinder scientific research and education. 
