Contesting Scientists' Narrations of NAGPRA's Legislative History.

The article discusses scientists' responses to section 10.11 of the U.S. Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), which governs the repatriation of culturally unidentifiable human remains to Native tribes and Native Hawaiian organizations. According to the author, scientists' critiques of this rule are part of a larger political and public relations strategy developed in the 1980s and 1990s to resist NAGPRA and use it for the purposes of archaeological, anthropological, and museum institutions rather than for the benefit of deceased Native peoples and their descendants. Topics discussed include funerary objects, racism, colonialism, and legislative history.