FY2010 NAGPRA Documentation Grant

Grant Number 40-10-GP-524
June 1, 2010-June 30, 2012

This grant was intended to help us increase the capacity of the Delaware Tribe’s NAGPRA Program through an update and expansion to our existing digital database of museum inventories created with FY 2004 NAGPRA funding and through basic NAGPRA training for added and existing staff. NAGPRA support is also requested to allow us to carry out research that will enable us to better consult with the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, the State Museum of Pennsylvania and the New York University College of Dentistry on the repatriation and disposition of Delaware human remains and funerary objects listed in their three Notices of Inventory Completions posted in the Federal Register. Such research will support our claims to items not listed in the existing Federal Register Notices, reunite associated collections in the possession of other museums and document the treatment histories of such collections once reunited. Our consultations with the collaborating museums were carried out in collaboration with the Delaware Nation and Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mahican Indians (hereafter identified as Delaware descended tribes) who may also be included as culturally affiliated groups in the revised Notices.

The following products were produced as deliverables from the project:

Traditional Delaware Funerals: An Ethnographic Approach for Documenting Funerary Objects under NAGPRA

A final draft report on Traditional Delaware Funerals was submitted for the Tribal Council’s review and comment. The approved report was shared with the Delaware Nation and the Stockbridge Munsee, as well as with our collaborating museums, and was submitted to an appropriate journal for publication in order to widely disseminate our guidance for correctly documenting the funerary status of Delaware affiliated funerary objects.

Draft Report on Treatment History

An additional deliverable of our FY 2010 NAGPRA Documentation Grant is to research and report on the treatment histories of Delaware affiliated collections at our collaborating museums. A draft report on the Treatment Histories of Delaware Affiliated Collections at the New York University College of Dentistry, Peabody Museum and State Museum of Pennsylvania is complete and has been sent to each museum for their final review. Once edited and approved by the museums, we will finalize the report and submit it to the Tribal Council for approval.

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