National Park Service News Release
For Immediate Release - March 12, 2007
David Barna (202) 208-6843
Timothy McKeown (202) 354-2206
(Washington, DC) – National Park Service Director Mary A. Bomar announced
the appointments of Dr. Alan Goodman and Dr. Rosita Worl to the Native
American Graves Protection and Repatriation Review Committee. The
seven-member advisory committee monitors, reviews, and assists in the
implementation of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act
(NAGPRA).
Goodman has been appointed to a four year term. He is the Distinguished
Service Professor of Biological Anthropology at Hampshire College and
Associate Director of the New York African Burial Ground Project. Goodman
has been extensively involved in NAGPRA compliance by several institutions
in the Southwestern United States. He currently serves as President of the
American Anthropological Association.
Worl has been reappointed to a two year term. Worl is the Director of the
Sealaska Heritage Institute and is on the board of directors of the National
Museum of the American Indian, Alaska Federation of Natives, and Sealaska
Corporation. She earned her doctorate in cultural anthropology at Harvard
University and is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University
of Alaska Southeast. She was elected chair of the Review Committee in 2004.
"I am pleased with the willingness and commitment of Dr. Goodman and Dr.
Worl to take on this important challenge,” said Bomar. "The review committee
is a dynamic group committed to ensuring that the goals of NAGPRA are
implemented.”
Goodman and Worl join Donna Augustine, Colin Kippen, Willie Jones, Dan L.
Monroe, and Vincas P. Steponaitis, PhD on the seven-member review committee.
NAGPRA was congressionally enacted in 1990 to address the rights of lineal
descendants, Indian tribes and Native Hawaiian organizations to Native
American human remains, funerary objects, sacred objects, and objects of
cultural patrimony with which they are affiliated. The law requires federal
agencies and museums to consult with tribes and Native Hawaiian
organizations, provide summaries and inventories of their collections, and
upon receipt of a valid claim, repatriate cultural items to the appropriate
parties. More information on the NAGPRA program is available at
www.cr.nps.gov/nagpra.