ICT NEWS

 

World Nomad Games 2026

 

Wouldn't this be amazing to see? ... Trace

World Nomad Games 2026: Issyk-Kul to host Nomad Tribe Festival

09:14, 1 July 2026

The Nomad Tribe international traditional music festival, set for September 1–6 at the Rukh-Ordo cultural center on the Issyk-Kul coast, will be the cultural centerpiece of the VI World Nomad Games, Qazinform News Agency cites Kabar.

The festival will be held as part of the global ethnocultural project Nomad World: Connection of Seasons.

It will feature competitions in storytelling, instrumental art, and vocal-instrumental performance.

Eight thematic zones will be built across the complex, including a pier shaped like a komuz and national yurts.

The daily programs from 10:00 a.m. to 10 p.m. will include concerts, creative meetings, master classes, exhibitions, and cultural exchanges.

Besides, the Chingiz Aitmatov Museum will host meetings with international scholars. 

The outdoor theater stage and a podcast studio in a yurt will record visitors’ voices for the museum archive.

An exhibition of traditional musical instruments of nomadic peoples, artisan showcases, an ethno-bazaar, and food zones, all designed in a unified ethnic style, will be held as part of the event.

The festival's main venue is a covered amphitheater with a 24m × 10m stage for competitive performances.

In total, 185 cultural events will be held at Rukh-Ordo, making it one of the largest cultural hubs of the Games.

Earlier, Kyrgyzstan unveiled the official video for the 2026 World Nomad Games, its largest and most celebrated cultural project, now recognized as a global brand.  

SNOW LEOPARD MASCOT

https://qazinform.com/news/snow-leopard-becomes-world-nomad-games-2026-symbol-9c4fbc

NAGPRA update

In line with growing trend of repatriation, UC Berkeley to return cultural artifacts to Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians

• Megan Lam | Staff | Jul 22, 2026

Since January 2026, UC Berkeley has issued eight notices of repatriation or inventory completion in the Federal Register. William Yau | Staff

UC Berkeley is working to return 36 lots of artifacts that are culturally, traditionally or historically linked to the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians. 

The repatriation of these artifacts will begin Aug. 7, and artifacts will be returned to the Agua Caliente tribe of the Agua Caliente Indian Reservation near Palm Springs. 

According to a Federal Register notice published July 8, the cultural objects include “worked stone, faunal remains, and ceramic fragments.” 

“These items are far more than museum collections — they embody the history, traditions, and cultural identity of our people and deserve to be cared for by the descendants and community to whom they belong,” said Jeff L. Grubbe, tribal chairman of the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians, in a statement. 

Repatriation takes place in accordance with the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, which requires institutions that receive federal funding to repatriate Native American cultural artifacts and remains. 

Since January 2026, UC Berkeley has issued eight notices of repatriation or inventory completion in the Federal Register. In 2025 alone, campus issued 22 notices, according to UC Berkeley’s NAGPRA website. In 2024 and 2023, that number was much lower, sitting at nine and 12, respectively. 

Every other year of notices involving UC Berkeley recorded in the Federal Register saw at most 10 repatriation or completion notices.  

Institutions issue a notice of inventory completion in the Federal Register if they have identified a cultural affiliation of human remains and the relevant funerary objects. Notices of intended repatriation are issued if an institution has received a repatriation request for unassociated funerary objects or others of cultural significance. 

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Virginia removes Court order to access #OBC

VIDEO:
https://www.dcnewsnow.com/video/changes-for-virginia-adoptees-seeking-birth-certificate/11992617/

A new Virginia law eliminates the need for adult adoptees to have a court order to request a copy of their original birth certificate, according to the Virginia Department of Health. (VDH)

Adoptees were formerly required to secure a court order before accessing their original birth records, but House Bill 301 changes that.  The VDH says a copy of these records can be requested by submitting an application, proof of identity, and the required fee to the Virginia Department of Health Office of Vital Records (OVR).

A Contact Preference Form can be filed by birth parents, where they indicate whether they wish to be contacted, prefer no contact, or request contact through an intermediary.

For more information on obtaining Virginia vital record documents, visit the VDH Office of Vital Records or call the Vital Records Call Center at 804-662-6200.

D.C. Court Ruling Exposes Ongoing Difficulties for Some Adoptees To Unseal Their Original Birth Certificate

 

Most of us have seen our original birth certificate, keeping it in a safe place for when it’s time to get a passport or otherwise confirm our identity. 

For the approximately 2–3% of Americans who are adoptees, having access to their original birth record can be a trial.  Literally.  A ruling made in a petition to open a sealed adoption record in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on July 13, 2026, once again highlighted that only a small number of states allow adoptees over the age of 18 unrestricted access to their original birth certificate (OBC).  Depending on how you count states with redaction or veto rules, roughly a dozen states give adult adoptees broad, direct access to their original birth certificates, including New York, Georgia, and Hawaii

For the rest, such as the unnamed 73-year-old adoptee who needed a court order to authorize releasing an OBC to gain access to the family medical history of her likely deceased birth parents, it can be a frustrating battle against outdated state laws.  While the natural assumption is that adoption petitions are complicated to preserve the parents' confidentiality, that’s not necessarily the only reason so few states have updated their statutes.

Wait, Marilyn Monroe, Steve Jobs, and Simone Biles Were Adopted? (Yes)

The first comprehensive law governing adoption in the U.S. was the Massachusetts Adoption of Children Act of 1851, which was created to protect the welfare of the child by moving from private contracts to a legal, court-overseen process.  Although originally not sealed, the policies for birth certificate access shifted in the conservative era ushered in after the end of World War II.  To protect against claims of illegitimacy that sometimes dogged the new family members, birth certificates of adopted children were sealed.

While this undeserved stigma had begun to fade by the late 1960s, state laws were not quick to follow suit.  There isn’t a federal birth registry.  All birth certificates and registries are issued and handled by each state, with significant variation in statutes regarding the rights of birth parents and those of the child given up for adoption. In some types, like relative, stepparent, or open adoptions, ongoing contact is a part of the agreement.  For others given up at birth or soon after, finding out who your birth parents are can depend heavily on what jurisdiction you were born in.

As noted, only a minority of states, including New York, Georgia, and Hawaii, allow many or all adults over 18 to request their OBC directly from vital records without a separate court order.  In roughly 20 states and in Washington, D.C., adoptees generally must obtain a court order to access their original birth certificate or adoption records.

Other requirements vary by jurisdiction.  In many states, adoptees must still petition a court in their birth state to unseal adoption records, while in others they apply directly to vital records under specific statutory procedures.  In some states, such as Minnesota, access to identifying adoption records can be tightly constrained and may involve long retention and sealing periods, layered court procedures, and limits on what information can be shared.  To navigate these processes, adoptees may need to petition a court, provide documentation such as a certified copy of the final decree of adoption, and in some cases may receive only non‑identifying information, such as family medical history.  Many turn to advocacy organizations or attorneys for help understanding their options.

This may seem like a lot of hoops to jump through just to get your own birth certificate, but those who favor the existing laws in those states argue that the parents’ privacy shouldn’t be betrayed.  That doesn’t mean everyone sitting on a bench agrees.

‘They’re Probably Dead’ Seems Kind of Ghoulish, If Effective

While not a state, Washington, D.C. has statutes governing the privacy of adoptees’ birth certificates.  Under D.C. Code § 16‑311, adoption records are sealed and may be opened only when a court finds that disclosure would promote or protect the welfare of the adoptee.  Under § 16‑314, the original birth certificate is sealed and may be opened only by court order.  However, Magistrate Judges have the power under Local Rule LCvR 72.1(a)(7) (page 68) to “consider options by adopted persons to open adoption records of the Court.

The unnamed plaintiff was seeking to break the seal on her adoption records in order to find out more about the medical history of her family.  While granting her petition, Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui classified the code of the District of Columbia as “antiquated” and reinforcing “harmful gender stereotypes.”  While changing the code herself was beyond her power, Judge Faruqui granted the plaintiff’s motion based on the likelihood that both her birth parents were deceased.  As such, their privacy rights were eclipsed by the needs of their still-living child.

It’s unknown whether the plaintiff had a pressing medical issue or was simply seeking information about any family-based illnesses, but that may remain between her and her physician.  After the Clerk issued her copies of the adoption records, Judge Faruqui ordered the court record to be resealed.

LINK: https://www.findlaw.com/legalblogs/law-and-life/d-c-court-ruling-exposes-ongoing-difficulties-for-some-adoptees-to-unseal-their-original-birth-certificate/ 

 

We received no alert, say leaders of First Nations communities razed by Canadian wildfires

I have been thinking about these fires, wondering if they were set and are suspicious; is there something under the land the governments are planning to mine, like rare earth minerals?  ... Trace

Chiefs in Ontario say they were left to self-evacuate before homes burned to ground, after being told there was no imminent threat

Olivia Bowden in Toronto

Tue 21 Jul 2026 

The Whitewater Lake First Nation in north-west Ontario has been burned to the ground. Photograph: Nishnawbe Aski Nation/Reuters

Fast-moving wildfires have burned two First Nations communities in Canada to the ground, as members said they were left to self-evacuate without government help or emergency alerts.

Thirteen communities in Ontario province have been ordered to evacuate because of wildfires, most of them First Nations. The Ontario premier, Doug Ford, told reporters on Monday that close to 2,000 people had been evacuated so far to cities including Toronto and Niagara Falls.

There are nearly 1,000 wildfires burning across Canada, with about 200 in Ontario. The prime minister, Mark Carney, said heatwaves and dry weather had combined to create “one of the most intense wildfire seasons in Canadian history”.

 READ: 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jul/21/first-nations-ontario-canada-wildfires-evacuations-government?CMP=share_btn_url

 

ICT NEWS - July 25, 2026

 

He's 30, pragmatic -- and possibly our most crucial First Nations chief

 July 19, 2026

If Aaron Pete is the future of First Nations leadership in Canada, we can breathe a sigh of relief.

This 30-year-old “fearlessly curious” podcaster, UBC-trained lawyer, free speech advocate, and chief of Chawathil First Nation near Hope, B.C., exudes a grounded pragmatism that cuts through cynical stereotypes.

In a recent conversation, he didn’t duck hard questions, equivocate, cast blame, or play the victim card. Instead, Pete delivered clear-eyed assessments rooted in lived experience and a fierce determination to deliver results. His mission is straightforward: lift his people out of poverty with strategies he believes are replicable elsewhere.

Listening to him, one senses a maturing generation of Indigenous leadership — one less obsessed with confrontation and more focused on building sustainable futures.

https://aaronpete.com/

That same drive powers his popular podcast, Nuanced with Aaron Pete. What started as a personal project has become a platform for long-form conversations with politicians, economists, journalists, Indigenous leaders, and thinkers from across the spectrum — including a recent sit-down with Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre.

He’s motivated by frustration with a public discourse that too often rewards outrage and slogans over curiosity and complexity. He prioritizes free speech and open debate because, as he sees it, bad ideas left unchallenged fuel division, poor policy, and real harm to communities. “We cover some of the toughest issues facing Canada,” he has said, “but we try to do it with nuance, curiosity, and kindness.”

He’s a man after my own heart. For years I’ve tried to do the same thing — move past the shouting matches and find clearer ground through real conversation.

Pete’s own story grounds his perspective.

Raised by a single Indigenous mother with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder, he carries the intergenerational weight of his grandmother’s residential school experience and his mother’s placement in the Sixties Scoop. These realities have not driven him to rhetoric or resentment, but to relentless practical governance.

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Wildfire Smoke Can Attack Almost Every Part of Your Body Not Just Your Lungs

Science Alert - July 20, 2026 

SOURCE: https://www.sciencealert.com/wildfire-smoke-can-attack-almost-every-part-of-your-body-not-just-your-lungs 

Wildfire smoke can deliver a cocktail of harmful air pollutants, including PM_2.5, NO₂, ozone, aromatic hydrocarbons, and lead.

It is killing tens of thousands of people a year.

This past week, a child stood on the observation deck of Toronto's CN Tower and looked out at a city skyline blurred by haze. Hundreds of miles away, National Guard troops patrolled a smoke-dimmed National Mall in Washington, and commuters pulled on masks. Smoke drifting south from Canada's wildfires has become an almost annual visitor to American skies. None of these scenes look that unusual these days.

 

Fire, The Ancient Ways

Why Native History Is Under Attack with Shannon O'Loughlin

 WE WILL NOT BE SILENCED👇

Not Your Ordinary Transportation Service

 

Not Your Ordinary Transportation Service – SheDrives with Purpose

by MBC News | Jul 16, 2026

Photo: SheDrives with Purpose

Regan Gamble, the Owner of SheDrives Ltd. in Edmonton, is excited to be one of 120 Indigenous entrepreneurs selected as a semi-finalist for the 2026 Pow Wow Pitch competition. 

“I’m so honoured,” said Gamble. 

The concept for her transportation business was driven from a desire to assist other women in need, whether fleeing from domestic violence to helping those who struggling without a vehicle needing a safe ride. 

“I think of our Elders, they don’t have transportation to go to a lot of places they want or need to, whether it’s just for medical appointments, or to pick up their prescriptions,” said Gamble. 

SheDrives is more than just a transportation service. 

“The moment a woman gets into the vehicle, there’s this sense of security … safety, comfort,” said Gamble. “We start off with a handshake, a hug. There’s just a cultural safety.” 

Her service has helped so many women, and Gamble recalls instances where she used her own experiences to comfort others and to let them know they were going to be ok. 

Gamble belongs to the Beardy & Okemasis First Nation in Saskatchewan.  Her spirit name is “Shining Star Winged Woman.” 

Both a Sixties scoop survivor and an Indian residential school survivor, Gamble spent nine years in Duck Lake then began a relationship when she was 15 years old when she had her son.  

Due to all the trauma she had endured, addiction took over her life for many years. 

“We get older and when we work on ourselves, when you put the work in, you just want to be a better person and do better in your life,” said Gamble. “You’re so hungry for it.” 

She just celebrated three years of sobriety. 

After watching Pow Wow Pitch with her boyfriend, he suggested she should apply for the competition. 

“I was watching and it was at a pow wow and they were doing their live pitch,” said Gamble. “I’m like, I can do that and went online and waited until they were having their next Pow Wow Pitch competition.” 

Gamble prepared for her 1-minute pitch by practising over 200 takes to perfect her pitch.  

“It was built on so much love and care,” said Gamble. “Everything was done so proper, I did ceremony, I brought protocol.” 

Although the process has been nerve-wracking, she said, “I’m just really so blessed and honoured to have gotten this far.” 

If she wins the competition, her plans are to build a sustainable model for SheDrives. 

“I want to expand,” said Gamble.  

The next steps would be to get another vehicle and get the safety permits and licensing in different municipalities. 

For more information about SheDrives LTD. visit:www.facebook.com/SheDrives

STORY BY  Danielle Dufour  VIA 

Wildfire Smoke, Tribes evacuated, CBC news updates

Republicans blast Canada over wildfire smoke, air quality in northern U.S.

(July 16, 2026) Republican members of U.S. Congress are slamming Canada's federal and provincial governments over what they claim is inaction in preventing the wildfires currently spreading smoke and poor air quality across much of the northeastern U.S., in addition to Central Canada.

The criticism comes in a sharply worded letter from four Michigan members of the House of Representatives, addressed to Prime Minister Mark Carney.

It accuses Canada of failing to conduct adequate forest maintenance to reduce the risk of wildfires and warns that the U.S. "will look elsewhere, and act on our own" if more action isn't taken.

"This is the third consecutive year we have had to write to Canadian officials about a crisis that Canada has the tools to prevent and has chosen not to," write the four Michigan Republicans — John James, Jack Bergman, John Moolenaar and Lisa McClain — in a letter dated Wednesday.

"Our hospitals are once again treating children, dialysis patients and older residents for the effects of smoke that did not originate anywhere near them."

The Republican lawmakers say they are "done accepting apologies in place of action," and float the idea of taking cross-border fire prevention into U.S. hands. 

READ:  https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/widlfires-smoke-air-quality-michigan-congress-republicans-9.7272538

 

More than 800 active fires

There were 858 active fires across Canada as of Thursday, according to data from the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre.

Smoke from wildfires in northwestern Ontario has been causing poor air quality and reduced visibility across for much of the southern parts of the province, according to Environment Canada.

The smoke has also triggered air quality warnings for states close to the Great Lakes, stretching from Minnesota to Maryland, with the U.S. air quality index ranging from unhealthy to hazardous.

Ontario's forest fire officials say there are 136 active fires in the northwest region, with 63 classified as out of control. Another 44 fires are burning in the northeast.

The province has said there have been 483 fires in Ontario so far this year, up from 351 as of this time last year and above the province's 10-year average by mid-July of 320.

Neighbouring Manitoba's latest official figures show 137 active fires, and a total of 261 so far this year.

This U.S. Environmental Protection Agency air quality index map from 12 pm ET on Thursday shows unhealthy to hazardous conditions across much of the northern part of the country, from Minnesota to Maryland. (AirNow.gov)

#60sScoop artist achieves childhood dream

Photo by Doug Kretchmer | Anishinaabe artist Jackie Traverse stands before a mural on the wall of the Creative Native Art Gallery (592 Selkirk Ave.), which she owns.

 

Winnipeg - Jackie Traverse knew at a very young age that she would one day be an artist. She was inspired in part by her 14 year old uncle who was always making art.  In spite of her family being torn apart in the ‘60s scoop with her siblings being removed from the family, she was always drawing and making art growing up.  A member of Lake St. Martin First Nation, she grew up in poverty in the North End and said she had fond memories of visiting her granny on Pritchard Avenue near McGregor.

At 21, she moved into an apartment in a small block at 592 Selkirk Avenue.  It is there, she told me, that, while still making art, she started down the road of addiction.  At 34, she made the decision to get serious about art and enrolled in the University of Manitoba’s Fine Arts 4 year course.  She graduated in 2009.

Jackie’s art was a passion of hers, but she was also passionate about drugs as well and the weekend partying and drug use started seeping more and more into her daily life. And while her art work has been shown in various galleries over the years (including Wah-Sa and Canadian Plains galleries in Winnipeg and Spirit Gallery in B.C., among others) it was the isolation during COVID that she really started taking herself more serious as an artist and realizing that the drugs were quite detrimental in her progress as an artist. In 2022, she was one of four Indigenous artists to have her art featured on a stamp through Canada Post as part of the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.

KEEP READING:  https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/our-communities/correspondents/2026/07/15/local-artist-achieves-childhood-dream

 

Media Bias (ongoing)

 

The People the Declaration Called ‘Savages’ Were Mostly Ignored in the Celebration 250 Years Later

And yet Native Americans were largely absent from US corporate media opinion pieces about America’s semiquincentennial.

I found 79 opinion articles about the 250th anniversary published between May 30 and July 4 in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and USA Today. Only three explicitly mentioned “Native American,” “Indian” or “Indigenous”; another referenced the genocide without using those terms. None gave Native Americans more than a line or two.

READ:  https://fair.org/home/the-people-the-declaration-called-savages-were-mostly-ignored-in-the-celebration-250-years-later/

The Fight To Save Indigenous Languages

 

Canada Ignoring First Nations solutions

In March 2026, the CHRT approved the $8 billion deal that transfers control of child welfare services to First Nations in the province.

READ MORE:  https://www.aptnnews.ca/national-news/caring-society-tells-chiefs-canadas-child-welfare-plan-ignores-first-nations-solutions/

Blackstock said in her decades of advocating for reform, she’s learned to recognize that Canada’s plan is a delay tactic.

“I see Canada delay, delay, delay, and try to fragment, divide and conquer, [give] partial information, those types of things, and these are patterns that are so familiar even to the tribunal that they give them a name called “the old mindset.” Blackstock said.

 

Northern First Nation razed by wildfire

 

Miles Morrisseau
ICT

The Namaygoosisagagun (Collins) First Nation has been destroyed by a fast moving fire that came on so quickly, people were forced to carry out an emergency evacuation; including some forced to flee by boat.

Residents reported having only minutes to gather their belongings before homes were overtaken by the flames.

Anishinabek Nation Grand Council Chief Linda Debassige released a statement regarding the devastation, saying all community members have been accounted for pending a full assessment.  

“It is with heartfelt sadness that I share that our member First Nation, Namaygoosisagagun First Nation, has been devastated by an unexpected and fast-moving wildfire that advanced toward and through the community, causing extensive damage and destruction to homes and community buildings,” Debassige said in the statement. 

KEEP READING:  https://ictnews.org/news/canada/namaygoosisagagun-first-nation-in-northern-ontario-surrounded-by-wildfire-as-members-flee-in-boats/ 

NAGPRA updates

 

Pinal Apache Child Returning Home to San Carlos After More Than 150 Years

July 13, 2026 - by News Director

SAN CARLOS — More than a century and a half after losing his life during military operations (uh, massacre) in the Pinal Mountains, a Pinal Apache child will finally return home to the San Carlos Apache Reservation.

The National Museum of Health and Medicine in Silver Spring, Maryland, has officially published a Notice of Inventory Completion in the Federal Register.  The notice, issued under the federal Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), clears the final legal pathway for the child’s remains to be returned to tribal leaders.

Historical Records Document Tragic Timeline

According to federal inventory records, the child — believed to have been under 12 years old — was killed in July 1870 in Arizona’s Pinal Mountains.  The death occurred during military operations involving scout units serving under U.S. Army Lieutenant H.B. Cushing of the 3rd Cavalry’s F Troop.

Historical documentation reveals that the child’s partial cranium was transferred to the Army Medical Museum in April 1872 by Acting Assistant Surgeon W.B. Dods via U.S. Army Surgeon C. McCormick. The remains were held in federal institutional collections for 154 years.

Path to Repatriation

Following formal consultations required under federal law, officials established a definitive cultural affiliation between the remains and the San Carlos Apache Tribe of the San Carlos Reservation.

The publication of the federal notice satisfies the statutory waiting period under NAGPRA, thereby legally permitting the physical transfer of the remains on or after Aug. 3, 2026.  The repatriation will allow the San Carlos Apache Tribe to reclaim the child and conduct traditional resting ceremonies according to tribal customs.

For Indigenous Nations across the country, the repatriation process represents a vital effort to restore dignity, heal multi-generational wounds, and honor ancestors whose graves and remains were historically disturbed.

https://gilaherald.com/pinal-apache-child-returning-home-to-san-carlos-after-more-than-150-years/

 **

Sen. Schatz Presses Harvard Over Delayed Return of Native Ancestors

The Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology was founded in 1866. U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz pressed Harvard this month to explain delays in returning Native ancestors and cultural items held by the University. | By Barbara A. Sheehan

By Shalini N. Ramchune, Crimson Staff Writer

June 24, 2026

United States Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) pressed Harvard earlier this month to explain why Native ancestors and cultural items remain in its possession, renewing calls for the University to speed up its repatriation efforts under a federal law requiring their return.

In a June 8 letter to Harvard President Alan M. Garber ’76, Schatz asked Harvard to provide updates on its compliance with the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, which requires federally funded museums and agencies to return Native American human remains, funerary objects, sacred objects, and objects of cultural patrimony to their descendants and affiliated tribes.

Harvard was one of 15 museums and universities that received letters from Schatz, the vice chair of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs. The letters asked each institution to provide updates on its NAGPRA compliance and detail barriers to repatriation.

“It shouldn’t take this long to return Native remains to their communities,” Schatz said in a press release. “Indigenous people have waited long enough. It’s time for these museums and universities to stop the delays and finally do the right thing.”

In his letter to Harvard, Schatz asked Garber to account for the University’s progress on repatriation, including how many ancestors and cultural items have been returned and how many still remain in Harvard’s collections.

He also pressed Garber on whether Harvard had met its pledge to complete the “disposition of ancestors and their associated funerary belongings” by 2025, and asked the University to explain any new allegations of non-compliance since 2023.

Schatz’s letter also asked Harvard to provide an update on a Department of the Interior investigation into the Peabody Museum’s handling of the Woodbury Collection, which includes hair clippings from roughly 700 Native American children at U.S. Indian boarding schools in the 1930s.

He also asked when the University applies the “preponderance of the evidence’’ standard, a legal threshold used to decide whether a claim is more likely than not to be true. Under NAGPRA, the standard can affect disputes over which tribe or Native Hawaiian organization has the strongest claim to ancestors or cultural items.Bottom of Form

Schatz gave Garber 30 calendar days to respond. A Harvard spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.

The letter marks Schatz’s latest effort to pressure Harvard and other institutions over what he has called slow compliance with NAGPRA.  In a 2024 speech on the Senate floor, Schatz said that more than 70 institutions still held nearly 58,000 Native ancestral remains. He also singled out Harvard as having the third-largest collection of Native ancestral remains and cultural items in the country.

“If you say you’re for equal justice, for doing right by the people of all backgrounds, then act like it,” Schatz said in the speech.

The other institutions that received letters from Schatz include the Ohio History Connection, Illinois State Museum, University of California, Berkeley, Indiana University, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, University of Kentucky, University of Alabama, University of Arizona, University of Florida, University of Missouri, University of Oklahoma, Center for American Archeology, University of Texas at Austin, and Milwaukee Public Museum.

In recent years, Harvard has taken steps to accelerate its repatriation work, including creating a department dedicated to NAGPRA at the Peabody and more than doubling its NAGPRA-dedicated staff.

But the Peabody failed to meet its 2022 pledge to complete the disposition of all ancestors and associated funerary belongings within three years.

As of Dec. 31, 2025, the Peabody had repatriated 5,464 ancestors and more than 20,000 funerary belongings, according to data on its website.  Still, 2,482 ancestors remained in active consultation with tribes, and another 2,161 were pending consultation — leaving 4,643 ancestors in the museum’s possession after the target deadline.

The Peabody has since extended its timeline by two years.  The museum’s NAGPRA dashboard has yet to be updated with June figures, though Harvard has previously said the dashboard would be updated twice a year, in June and December.

https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2026/6/24/schatz-presses-harvard-nagpra/ 

 

Every time I see stories about this, I am imaging diggers looting graves - for money, prestige, titles,  but they are still thieves.... Trace