In addition to the term Act, which means the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act as described above, definitions used in these regulations are grouped in seven classes: Parties required to comply with these regulations; Parties with standing to make claims under these regulations; Parties responsible for implementing these regulations; Objects covered by these regulations; Cultural affiliation; Types of land covered by these regulations; and Procedures required by these regulations.

(a) Who must comply with these regulations?

(1) Federal agency means any department, agency, or instrumentality of the United States. Such term does not include the Smithsonian Institution as specified in section 2 (4) of the Act.

(2) Federal agency official means any individual authorized by delegation of authority within a Federal agency to perform the duties relating to these regulations.

(3) Museum means any institution or State or local government agency (including any institution of higher learning) that has possession of, or control over, human remains, funerary objects, sacred objects, or objects of cultural patrimony and receives Federal funds.

(i) The term “possession” means having physical custody of human remains, funerary objects, sacred objects, or objects of cultural patrimony with a sufficient legal interest to lawfully treat the objects as part of its collection for purposes of these regulations. Generally, a museum or Federal agency would not be considered to have possession of human remains, funerary objects, sacred objects, or objects of cultural patrimony on loan from another individual, museum, or Federal agency.

(ii) The term “control” means having a legal interest in human remains, funerary objects, sacred objects, or objects of cultural patrimony sufficient to lawfully permit the museum or Federal agency to treat the objects as part of its collection for purposes of these regulations whether or not the human remains, funerary objects, sacred objects or objects of cultural patrimony are in the physical custody of the museum or Federal agency. Generally, a museum or Federal agency that has loaned human remains, funerary objects, sacred objects, or objects of cultural patrimony to another individual, museum, or Federal agency is considered to retain control of those human remains, funerary objects, sacred objects, or objects of cultural patrimony for purposes of these regulations.

(iii) The phrase “receives Federal funds” means the receipt of funds by a museum after November 16, 1990, from a Federal agency through any grant, loan, contract (other than a procurement contract), or other arrangement by which a Federal agency makes or made available to a museum aid in the form of funds. Federal funds provided for any purpose that are received by a larger entity of which the museum is a part are considered Federal funds for the purposes of these regulations. For example, if a museum is a part of a State or local government or a private university and the State or local government or private university receives Federal funds for any purpose, the museum is considered to receive Federal funds for the purpose of these regulations.

(4) Museum official means the individual within a museum designated as being responsible for matters relating to these regulations.

(5) Person means an individual, partnership, corporation, trust, institution, association, or any other private entity, or, any official, employee, agent, department, or instrumentality of the United States, or of any Indian tribe or Native Hawaiian organization, or of any State or political subdivision thereof that discovers or discovered human remains, funerary objects, sacred objects or objects of cultural patrimony on Federal or tribal lands after November 16, 1990.

(b) Who has standing to make a claim under these regulations?

(1) Lineal descendant means an individual tracing his or her ancestry directly and without interruption by means of the traditional kinship system of the appropriate Indian tribe or Native Hawaiian organization or by the common law system of descendance to a known Native American individual whose remains, funerary objects, or sacred objects are being claimed under these regulations.

(2) [Reserved]

(3)

(i) Native Hawaiian organization means any organization that:

(A) Serves and represents the interests of Native Hawaiians;

(B) Has as a primary and stated purpose the provision of services to Native Hawaiians; and

(C) Has expertise in Native Hawaiian affairs.

(ii) The term Native Hawaiian means any individual who is a descendant of the aboriginal people who, prior to 1778, occupied and exercised sovereignty in the area that now constitutes the State of Hawaii. Such organizations must include the Office of Hawaiian Affairs and Hui Ma̅lama I Na̅Ku̅puna 'O Hawai'i Nei.

(4) Indian tribe official means the principal leader of an Indian tribe or Native Hawaiian organization or the individual officially designated by the governing body of an Indian tribe or Native Hawaiian organization or as otherwise provided by tribal code, policy, or established procedure as responsible for matters relating to these regulations.

(c) Who is responsible for carrying out these regulations?

(1) Secretary means the Secretary of the Interior or a designee.

(2) Review Committee means the advisory committee established pursuant to section 8 of the Act.

(3) Manager, National NAGPRA Program means the official of the Department of the Interior designated by the Secretary as responsible for administration of matters relating to this part. Communications to the Manager, National NAGPRA Program should be sent to the mailing address listed on the National NAGPRA Contact Information Web site, http://www.nps.gov/nagpra/CONTACTS/INDEX.HTM.

(d) What objects are covered by these regulations? The Act covers four types of Native American objects. The term Native American means of, or relating to, a tribe, people, or culture indigenous to the United States, including Alaska and Hawaii.

(1) Human remains means the physical remains of the body of a person of Native American ancestry. The term does not include remains or portions of remains that may reasonably be determined to have been freely given or naturally shed by the individual from whose body they were obtained, such as hair made into ropes or nets. For the purposes of determining cultural affiliation, human remains incorporated into a funerary object, sacred object, or object of cultural patrimony, as defined below, must be considered as part of that item.

(2) Funerary objects means items that, as part of the death rite or ceremony of a culture, are reasonably believed to have been placed intentionally at the time of death or later with or near individual human remains. Funerary objects must be identified by a preponderance of the evidence as having been removed from a specific burial site of an individual affiliated with a particular Indian tribe or Native Hawaiian organization or as being related to specific individuals or families or to known human remains. The term burial site means any natural or prepared physical location, whether originally below, on, or above the surface of the earth, into which, as part of the death rite or ceremony of a culture, individual human remains were deposited, and includes rock cairns or pyres which do not fall within the ordinary definition of gravesite. For purposes of completing the summary requirements in §10.8 and the inventory requirements of §10.9:

(i) Associated funerary objects means those funerary objects for which the human remains with which they were placed intentionally are also in the possession or control of a museum or Federal agency. Associated funerary objects also means those funerary objects that were made exclusively for burial purposes or to contain human remains.

(ii) Unassociated funerary objects means those funerary objects for which the human remains with which they were placed intentionally are not in the possession or control of a museum or Federal agency. Objects that were displayed with individual human remains as part of a death rite or ceremony of a culture and subsequently returned or distributed according to traditional custom to living descendants or other individuals are not considered unassociated funerary objects.

(3) Sacred objects means items that are specific ceremonial objects needed by traditional Native American religious leaders for the practice of traditional Native American religions by their present-day adherents. While many items, from ancient pottery sherds to arrowheads, might be imbued with sacredness in the eyes of an individual, these regulations are specifically limited to objects that were devoted to a traditional Native American religious ceremony or ritual and which have religious significance or function in the continued observance or renewal of such ceremony. The term traditional religious leader means a person who is recognized by members of an Indian tribe or Native Hawaiian organization as:

(i) Being responsible for performing cultural duties relating to the ceremonial or religious traditions of that Indian tribe or Native Hawaiian organization, or

(ii) Exercising a leadership role in an Indian tribe or Native Hawaiian organization based on the tribe or organization's cultural, ceremonial, or religious practices.

(4) Objects of cultural patrimony means items having ongoing historical, traditional, or cultural importance central to the Indian tribe or Native Hawaiian organization itself, rather than property owned by an individual tribal or organization member. These objects are of such central importance that they may not be alienated, appropriated, or conveyed by any individual tribal or organization member. Such objects must have been considered inalienable by the culturally affiliated Indian tribe or Native Hawaiian organization at the time the object was separated from the group. Objects of cultural patrimony include items such as Zuni War Gods, the Confederacy Wampum Belts of the Iroquois, and other objects of similar character and significance to the Indian tribe or Native Hawaiian organization as a whole.

(e)

(1) What is cultural affiliation? Cultural affiliation means that there is a relationship of shared group identity that can be reasonably traced historically or prehistorically between members of a present-day Indian tribe or Native Hawaiian organization and an identifiable earlier group. Cultural affiliation is established when the preponderance of the evidence—based on geographical, kinship, biological, archeological, anthropological, linguistic, folklore, oral tradition, historical evidence, or other information or expert opinion—reasonably leads to such a conclusion.

(2) What does culturally unidentifiable mean? Culturally unidentifiable refers to human remains and associated funerary objects in museum or Federal agency collections for which no lineal descendant or culturally affiliated Indian tribe or Native Hawaiian organization has been identified through the inventory process.

(f) What types of lands do the excavation and discovery provisions of these regulations apply to?

(1) Federal lands means any land other than tribal lands that are controlled or owned by the United States Government, including lands selected by but not yet conveyed to Alaska Native Corporations and groups organized pursuant to the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (43 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.). United States “control,” as used in this definition, refers to those lands not owned by the United States but in which the United States has a legal interest sufficient to permit it to apply these regulations without abrogating the otherwise existing legal rights of a person.

(2) Tribal lands means all lands which:

(i) Are within the exterior boundaries of any Indian reservation including, but not limited to, allotments held in trust or subject to a restriction on alienation by the United States; or

(ii) Comprise dependent Indian communities as recognized pursuant to 18 U.S.C. 1151; or

(iii) Are administered for the benefit of Native Hawaiians pursuant to the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act of 1920 and section 4 of the Hawaiian Statehood Admission Act (Pub.L. 86-3; 73 Stat. 6).

(iv) Actions authorized or required under these regulations will not apply to tribal lands to the extent that any action would result in a taking of property without compensation within the meaning of the Fifth Amendment of the United States Constitution.

(g) What procedures are required by these regulations?

(1) Summary means the written description of collections that may contain unassociated funerary objects, sacred objects, and objects of cultural patrimony required by §10.8 of these regulations.

(2) Inventory means the item-by-item description of human remains and associated funerary objects.

(3) Intentional excavation means the planned archeological removal of human remains, funerary objects, sacred objects, or objects of cultural patrimony found under or on the surface of Federal or tribal lands pursuant to section 3 (c) of the Act.

(4) Inadvertent discovery means the unanticipated encounter or detection of human remains, funerary objects, sacred objects, or objects of cultural patrimony found under or on the surface of Federal or tribal lands pursuant to section 3 (d) of the Act.

(5) Disposition means the transfer of control over Native American human remains, funerary objects, sacred objects, and objects of cultural patrimony by a museum or Federal agency under this part. This part establishes disposition procedures for several different situations:

(i) Custody of human remains, funerary objects, sacred objects, and objects of cultural patrimony excavated intentionally from, or discovered inadvertently on, Federal or tribal lands after November 16, 1990, is established under §10.6.

(ii) Repatriation of human remains, funerary objects, sacred objects, and objects of cultural patrimony in museum and Federal agency collections to a lineal descendant or culturally affiliated Indian tribe or Native Hawaiian organization is established under §10.10.

(iii) Disposition of culturally unidentifiable human remains, with or without associated funerary objects, in museum or Federal agency collections is established under §10.11.

(iv) Disposition of unclaimed human remains, funerary objects, sacred objects, or objects of cultural patrimony is governed by §10.7.

(h) Unclaimed cultural items means Native American human remains, funerary objects, sacred objects, or objects of cultural patrimony:

(1) That have been excavated or discovered on, and removed from, Federal lands after November 16, 1990, and

(2) Whose disposition under 25 U.S.C. 3002(a) and §10.6 of this part has not occurred because either:

(i) Within one year after publication of a notice under §10.6(c) of this part, no Indian tribe or Native Hawaiian organization has sent a written claim for the cultural items to the appropriate Federal agency, or no lineal descendant has responded to a notice for human remains and associated funerary objects; or

(ii) Within two years after knowing or having reason to know that cultural items were excavated or discovered, and removed, the appropriate Federal agency could not reasonably identify any Indian tribe or Native Hawaiian organization or lineal descendant as a potential claimant.

[60 FR 62158, Dec. 4, 1995, as amended at 62 FR 41293, Aug. 1, 1997; 70 FR 57179, Sept. 30, 2005; 71 FR 16501, Apr. 3, 2006; 75 FR 12403, Mar. 15, 2010; 76 FR 39009, July 5, 2011; 78 FR 27082, May 9, 2013; 80 FR 68470, Nov. 5, 2015]