The 10,600-Year-Old Man Found In Nevada — And The DNA Discovery That Changed The Story Of The First Americans

That controversy was about who had the right to claim this ancient man as an ancestor.

The Law And The Living

The context for the legal battle over the Spirit Cave Man was established by a landmark piece of legislation passed in 1990, just a few years before the radiocarbon dates revealed the burial’s true age.

The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act — universally known by its acronym, NAGPRA — fundamentally changed the legal relationship between American museums, federal agencies, and Native American communities when it came to the treatment of Native American human remains and cultural objects.

Before NAGPRA, the practice of collecting, storing, and displaying Native American human remains in museums and university collections had continued largely unchecked for more than a century.