Unalaska, AK – Human remains excavated from Unalaska and Amaknak Islands in the 1950s and '60s will soon be returned to the Qawalangin tribe under the provisions of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA). The 1990 law says bones and funerary items found on federal lands need to be offered back to their original families or tribes. Robert King in Anchorage coordinates the repatriation of bones.

"When you have remains that are hundreds and indeed thousand of years old, as in this case," King explains, "those specific genealogical connections are broken. So then it goes the next highest claimant who would have the priority. You might say the collective descendants, so in this case, the tribe."

The bones of ten individuals were excavated by a now deceased archaeologist from Michigan from Eider Point in the 1950s. Bone fragments from another individual were found on Amaknak Island in the 1960s, though records do not say by whom. Because the remains were found on then federal land, the federal government took possession of them.

"When the remains are returned, they become the private property of the tribe and so then the tribe at its own discretion can do whatever the tribe wishes to do with the remains," King says.

King says tribes often decide to rebury the bones. The Qawalangin tribe will take possession of the bones later this summer. Tribal representatives could not be reached for comment on their plans for the remains.