FY2024 NAGPRA Consultation/Documentation Grants | P24AS00505

Opportunity Information: Apply for P24AS00505

The FY2024 NAGPRA Consultation/Documentation Grants opportunity (Funding Opportunity Number P24AS00505) is a discretionary grant program run by the National Park Service under CFDA 15.922. It funds project work that directly supports responsibilities under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA). The central purpose is to move NAGPRA cases forward by improving consultation between parties and strengthening the underlying documentation needed to make defensible decisions about cultural affiliation, control, treatment, repatriation, and disposition of Native American human remains and certain categories of cultural items.

Funded activities must fall under consultation and/or documentation. Consultation projects are meant to support efforts tied to revising a NAGPRA inventory and to making or responding to repatriation requests involving items listed in a NAGPRA summary. In practice, this can include structured engagement between museums and Tribes or Native Hawaiian organizations to resolve questions, review existing inventory information, clarify claims, and complete the steps needed to reach repatriation outcomes. Documentation projects focus on research and fact-finding that help determine the geographical origin and cultural affiliation of Native American cultural items, along with other foundational details about how items were acquired. The intent is that the work is not purely academic; it should be aimed at resolving NAGPRA responsibilities and enabling decisions and actions related to repatriation and disposition.

Eligibility is targeted to the parties most directly involved in NAGPRA implementation. Eligible applicants include Indian Tribes (including Alaska Native villages) that are federally recognized, and Native Hawaiian organizations (NHOs). For this program, an Indian Tribe is understood as a tribe, band, nation, or other organized Indian group or community, including Alaska Native villages, that the United States recognizes as eligible for federal Indian programs and services; the Department of the Interior interprets this as covering the 574 federally recognized tribes and Alaska Native villages (as reflected on the Bureau of Indian Affairs list). The opportunity also allows museums to apply if they have control of Native American human remains, funerary objects, sacred objects, or objects of cultural patrimony and have received federal funds. “Museum” is defined broadly and can include state or local government agencies, private institutions, and colleges or universities, as long as they have received federal funds and meet NAGPRA-specific prerequisites.

Museums have additional compliance-related conditions to be considered eligible. Prior to submitting a grant application, an eligible museum must have completed and provided the required NAGPRA documentation to the National NAGPRA Program and to Tribes or NHOs as appropriate. This includes a NAGPRA Summary of cultural items in their possession or control (generally due by November 16, 1993, or later according to the timelines in 43 CFR 10.13) and a NAGPRA Inventory of human remains and associated funerary objects (generally due by November 16, 1995, or later according to 43 CFR 10.13). A museum that has not yet completed a summary or inventory can still become eligible if it completes those requirements before submitting the proposal. Museums determined to be out of compliance with NAGPRA may be excluded from consideration.

Certain applicants are specifically barred. Federal agencies and the Smithsonian Institution may not apply for these grants. The program also notes performance accountability: applicants that previously received a NAGPRA grant but failed to meet the conditions of their grant agreement (including required reports or deliverables) may be penalized during the review process, which can affect competitiveness for FY2024 awards.

From a funding and timing standpoint, the opportunity lists an award ceiling of $100,000 per award and an original closing date of March 8, 2024. The opportunity was created on November 20, 2023. The eligible applicant types shown in the source data include various government entities, higher education institutions (public and private), certain nonprofits, and tribal governments or organizations; however, the program narrative makes clear that awards must align with NAGPRA and that eligibility in practice hinges on being a Tribe/NHO or an eligible museum meeting NAGPRA documentation and compliance expectations.

• The National Park Service in the other sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "FY2024 NAGPRA Consultation/Documentation Grants" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 15.922.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2023-11-20.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2024-03-08. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $100,000.00 in funding.
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, County governments, City or township governments, Special district governments, Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments), Nonprofits having a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Private institutions of higher education, Others.

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