The legal and ethical framework that governed this practice was, for most of American history, one that gave scientific institutions broad authority over ancient remains found on federal or private land, with minimal recognition of the rights or interests of descendant communities.

The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990 changed this framework significantly.

NAGPRA required federal agencies and institutions receiving federal funding to inventory their holdings of Native American human remains and cultural items, to consult with affiliated tribes, and to repatriate remains and items to culturally affiliated communities upon request.

The law represented a fundamental shift in the legal and ethical status of ancient Native American remains — from scientific specimens owned by institutions to ancestors belonging to communities.

The Kennewick Man case — in which the skeletal remains of an ancient individual found on the banks of the Columbia River in Washington State in 1996 became the subject of a decade-long legal battle between a group of scientists seeking the right to study the remains and tribal nations seeking their repatriation — played out in the years between the passage of NAGPRA and the publication of the Anzick-1 genome.