I

105TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. R. 749

To amend the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act

to provide for improved notification and consent, and for other purposes.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

FEBRUARY 13, 1997

Mr. ABERCROMBIE (for himself and Mr. FALEOMAVAEGA) introduced the

following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Resources

A BILL

To amend the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act to provide for improved notification and

consent, and for other purposes.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION 1. AMENDMENTS TO THE NATIVE AMERICAN

4 GRAVES PROTECTION AND REPATRIATION

5 ACT.

6 (a) WRITTEN CONSENT REQUIRED IF NATIVE AMER7 ICAN REMAINS ARE EXCAVATED OR REMOVED FOR PUR8 POSES OF STUDY.—Section 3(c) of the Native American

9 Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (25 U.S.C.

10 3002(c)) is amended—
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1 (1) in paragraph (3), by striking ‘‘and’’ at the

2 end of the paragraph;

3 (2) in paragraph (4), by striking the period and

4 inserting ‘‘; and’’; and

5 (3) by adding at the end the following:

6 ‘‘(5) in the case of any intentional excavation or

7 removal of Native American human remains for pur8 poses of study, such remains are excavated or re9 moved after written consent is obtained from—

10 ‘‘(A) lineal descendants, if known or read11 ily ascertainable; or

12 ‘‘(B) in any case in which lineal descend13 ants cannot be readily ascertained, each appro14 priate Indian tribe or Native Hawaiian organi15 zation.

16 ‘‘The requirement under paragraph (1) shall not be inter17 preted as allowing or requiring, in the absence of the con18 sent of each appropriate Indian tribe or Native Hawaiian

19 organization, any recordation or analysis that is in addi20 tion to any recordation or analysis that is otherwise al21 lowed or required under this Act.’’.

22 (b) REQUIREMENTS FOR INADVERTENT DISCOV23 ERIES.—Section 3(d) of the Native American Graves Pro24 tection and Repatriation Act (25 U.S.C. 3002(d)) is

25 amended—
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1 (1) in paragraph (1)—

2 (A) in the first sentence, by striking ‘‘with

3 respect to Federal lands’’ and inserting ‘‘with

4 respect to those Federal lands’’; and

5 (B) by inserting after the first sentence

6 the following: ‘‘In any case in which a Federal

7 agency or instrumentality receives notice of a

8 discovery of Native American cultural items on

9 lands with respect to which the Federal agency

10 or instrumentality has primary management au11 thority, the appropriate official of the Federal

12 agency or instrumentality shall notify, in writ13 ing, each appropriate Indian tribe or Native

14 Hawaiian organization. The notification re15 quired under the preceding sentence shall be

16 provided not later than 3 business days after

17 the date on which the Federal agency or instru18 mentality receives notification of the discov19 ery.’’; and

20 (2) in paragraph (2), by adding at the end the

21 following new sentence: ‘‘Any person or entity that

22 controls a cultural item referred to in the preceding

23 sentence shall comply with the applicable require24 ments of subsection (c).’’.
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1 (c) REVIEW COMMITTEE.—Section 8(c)(5) of the Na2 tive American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (25

3 U.S.C. 3006(c)(5)) is amended—

4 (1) by inserting ‘‘and associated funerary ob5 jects’’ after ‘‘culturally unidentifiable human re6 mains’’; and

7 (2) by striking ‘‘for developing a process for

8 disposition of such remains’’ and inserting ‘‘for de9 veloping a process for the disposition of such re10 mains and associated funerary objects’’.

11 (d) ENFORCEMENT.—Section 9 of the Native Amer12 ican Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (25 U.S.C.

13 3007) is amended by adding at the end the following:

14 ‘‘(e) ENFORCEMENT.—(1) Subject to paragraph (2)

15 and further appropriations by Congress, the amounts col16 lected by the Secretary as penalties under this section

17 shall be used to supplement the amounts made available

18 by appropriations for conducting enforcement activities re19 lated to this section.

20 ‘‘(2) In carrying out enforcement activities related to

21 this section, the Secretary may—

22 ‘‘(A) pay any person who furnishes information

23 that leads to the assessment of a civil penalty under

24 this section (other than an officer or employee of the

25 Federal Government or a State or local government,
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1 including a tribal government, who furnishes or who

2 renders service in the performance of official duties)

3 the lesser of—

4 ‘‘(i) half of the amount of the civil penalty;

5 or

6 ‘‘(ii) $1,000; and

7 ‘‘(B) reduce the amount of a civil penalty that

8 would otherwise be assessed under this section if the

9 violator against whom the civil penalty is assessed

10 agrees to pay to the aggrieved parties involved an

11 aggregate amount of restitution not to exceed the

12 amount of such reduction.’’.

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