Effective September 15, 2020, as part of our commitment to NAGPRA and to the concerns of Tribal Nations, the university will implement a moratorium on research, teaching, display, imaging, and circulation of human remains and cultural items that are potentially subject to NAGPRA, including all on-site or loaned collections, at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

As a federally funded land-grant institution, the university has an ethical and legal responsibility to acknowledge the Tribal Nations on whose land we reside and to curate and repatriate Native American, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian human remains and funerary objects, sacred objects, and objects of cultural patrimony (collectively, “cultural items”) in a respectful, dignified, and legally compliant manner. The university has begun the process of consulting with Tribal Nations regarding human remains and cultural items in university collections in accordance with the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (25 U.S.C. § 3001 et seq., 43 CFR Part 10; collectively, “NAGPRA”).

The moratorium will remain in effect until the university’s NAGPRA Advisory Committee establishes procedures for review of access requests. It prohibits all research, teaching, display, imaging and circulation of NAGPRA materials and collections. The moratorium was developed in consultation with the Office of the Provost and the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion.

To learn more, visit the Illinois Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act pages.