CULTURAL RESOURCES

Chestnut Law Offices attorneys have extensive experience with the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act ("NAGPRA") and other federal laws relating to the protection of cultural resources and tribal patrimony.We represented the Pueblo de San Ildefonso in validating a federal cause of action under NAGPRA for cultural patrimony in federally funded museums.  See Pueblo of San Ildefonso v. Ridlon, 90 F.3d 423 (10th Cir. 1996).Chestnut Law Offices attorneys have successfully negotiated the return of invaluable artifacts sacred to Pueblo culture and religion, including careful transportation of priceless artifacts to Pueblo lands. We are especially pleased with our work in the protection and recovery of cultural resources because of the importance of cultural resources to our clients.

PROTECTION OF CULTURAL RESOURCES

An Indian Tribe's distinctive culture is often the most cherished and important thing that a Tribe has.  It involves all the different things that when put together constitute a way of life.  The lands, objects and practices are the physical manifestations of culture that can be protected and Chestnut Law Offices has been involved in the protection of these things for over twenty years. Peter C. Chestnut and Ann Berkley Rodgers brought the first case in the country under the Native American Graves Protection Act provisions concerning repatriation of objects in federally funded museums. For lack of a better word, we refer to these physical manifestations as cultural resources.

CLO gives broad definitions to cultural resources. Protection can include administrative proceedings, private negotiations and litigation to protect the use of places as well as objects and practices. A selection of actions taken to protect cultural resources includes:

Protection of a sacred salt lake by stopping the issuance of a mining permit that would have caused a significant reduction of in-flows into the Salt Lake
Protection of a minimum flow from a spring used for ceremonial purposes, and cultural easement to protect use of the spring by a Tribe even though the spring was located outside Tribal lands;
Assistance to U.S. Attorneys in prosecuting persons who took culturally important objects from a tribe's land and attempts to sell them in the open market;
Preventing the auction of several objects of cultural patrimony from sale through a well-established west coast auction house;
Helping to establish the process for certification of teachers of native language in public schools;
Negotiation and other action to prevent non-permitted photography of cultural practices; and
Assisting federal agencies in their land use management actions to prevent disruption of sacred sites outside Tribal land.

CLO looks at all the different ways that interests can be protected when a Tribe seeks protection of a cultural resource, creatively using the law to protect a Tribe's culture.