They are a living community with their own understanding of their history and their relationship to the landscape they inhabit.

The discovery and study of Naia’s remains occurred within the legal and institutional framework of Mexican archaeology — a framework that recognizes Mexico’s pre-Columbian heritage as national patrimony managed by INAH, rather than using the kind of tribal consultation and repatriation framework that NAGPRA provides in the United States.

The consultation that occurred around the Hoyo Negro project was primarily with INAH as the institutional steward of Mexico’s archaeological heritage, rather than with specific Maya communities as the descendants of the ancient people of the region.

This difference in legal framework has not prevented the research from occurring, but it raises questions about whose voice is heard in decisions about how ancient remains in the region are treated — questions that Indigenous scholars in Mexico and internationally have increasingly raised in discussions about the ethics of ancient DNA research in the Americas more broadly.