Repatriating Indigenous Knowledge in U.S. Archives: A Paradigm and Practice Toward Cultural Heritage Justice

Archival reparation functions as both a paradigm and a practice. As a paradigm, it provides a framework to recalibrate the structural power asymmetries that persist between settler-colonial archives and Indigenous communities. As a practice, returning cultural heritage materials to their rightful owners can restore agency, but it is not inherently decolonial. This essay focuses on materials outside the purview of the U.S. Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) and how concepts of return intersect with Western archival methods, colonialism, and historical erasure. It maintains that archival repatriation has been underutilized within the broader vision of decolonial futures.