The Act Itself
The Native American Graves Protection Repatriation Act criminalizes trafficking cultural items and affirms Native American ownership of cultural items found on federal and tribal land. This Act was in response to the practice of taking items of cultural significance from tribal land in the name of scientific research and then later selling these items to museums.
The Act contains a methodology to determine if an item is an item of tribal significance. The Act seeks to return these items to tribes or to ensure tribes are compensated for them and it only contains two narrow exceptions.
Below is a link to the text of the statue on The Office of the Law Revision Counsel website and a link to a compiled legislative history which is available on HeinOnline
What the Act Covers?
The Act applies to cultural items which includes human remains, and any associated or unassociated funerary objects, any sacred objects, or an object having ongoing historical, traditional, or cultural importance central to the Native American group or culture.
What is Excluded?
This Act does not prevent tribes from relinquishing a claim to any item that would be otherwise covered by the act. If any tribe relinquishes their interest then those items are excluded. When an item in question is undergoing scientific study that would generate significant benefit to the United States then the institution may keep the item and return it within 90 days of finishing the relevant study.
What Does the Act Apply to?
The act is not specifically focused on land itself. However, it only applies to institutions that are recipients of federal funding. This is the primary limitation on the application of the Act and it is why it works in combination with the other federal statues listed.
Law Review Articles
Marina F. Rothberg, Indiana Jones and the Illicit Excavation and Trafficking of Antiquities: Refining Federal Statutes to Strengthen Cultural Heritage Protections, 63 B.C. L. Rev. 1555 (2022), provides an overview of PARA, ARPA, And NAGPRA.
Roberto Iraola, A Primer on the Criminal Penalty Provisions of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, 28 Am. Indian L. Rev. 431 (2004), provides a more in depth discussion on the criminal provisions of the Act.