Alaska lawmakers support push to investigate, document forced assimilation in boarding schools chilkatvalleynews.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from chilkatvalleynews.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Juneau, Alaska (KINY) - On Sunday one of the hardest athletic events around the world will begin on the shores of Auke Lake in Juneau with a cannon blast that will signify the first official full IRONMAN race in Alaska.
Here’s former Larsen Bay resident and Alutiiq Museum executive director April Laktonen Counceller:
“It was the first time where our people really began to understand why it was so important to have control over our own cultural heritage and by extension, our ancestral remains,” Counceller said. “It took years and lots of lawyers.”
That repatriation request process began in 1987, and hundreds of those ancestors were put to rest in 1991.
The Smithsonian repatriation isn’t covered under NAGPRA. Instead the Smithsonian based its policy on a 1989 law that authorized the National Museum of the American Indian.
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One of the criticisms of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act is that it puts a huge burden of proof on Tribes who may not have access to the necessary records.