Exhibiting Culture: Museums and Indians, A History and Analysis of Laws Protecting Native American Cultures

Marilyn Phelan, A History and Analysis of Laws Protecting Native American Cultures, 45 TULSA L. REV. 45 (2010). This article is a summary and history of the legislative acts and judicial decisions that considered and finally brought official recognition of a separate and distinct way of life for Native Americans and a protection of their cultural heritage. The article also compares Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act with the international convention, the 1995 UNIDROIT Convention on Stolen or Illegally Exported Cultural Objects, which, as part of its call for the international repatriation of cultural property generally, endorses the repatriation of sacred or communally important cultural objects that belong to, and are used by, tribal or indigenous communities.