Pawnee Nation reburies ancestors
NEBRASKA-On October 18th, Pawnee Nation elders, leaders and tribal members reburied the remains of Pawnee ancestors. The remains were returned from museums and other collections pursuant to the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA). The reburial took place at a location in east central Nebraska, on ancestral homelands recently repatriated to the Pawnee Nation.
The land where the Pawnee reburial took place was gifted back to the Pawnee Nation by writer Roger Welsch. The 60 sixty acres given to the tribe once served as part of the traditional homelands to the Pawnee prior to their removal to Oklahoma in the late 1800's. NARF worked with the Pawnee Nation and its Repatriation Committee to assist in the facilitation of the transfer of Mr. Welsch's land to the Pawnee Nation for use as a reburial and cultural site. NARF attorney Walter Echo-Hawk also assisted the tribe in attaining an opinion from the Nebraska Attorney General last year that clarified the tribe's right to conduct reburials on private land.