Collections Identification and Status Report for Select Bureau of Land Management Archaeological Collections

In July 1994, the United States Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the US Army Corps of Engineers, St. Louis District entered into Interagency Agreement No. 1422P852-A4-0015 for the purpose of tracking collections produced under the provisions of the Antiquities Act of 1906 (P.L. 59-206) and the Archaeological Resources Protection Act (ARPA; P.L. 96-95). The purpose of this task was to assist the BLM in NAGPRA compliance.

The St. Louis District was asked by BLM to identify and contact repositories in 35 states. The project was divided into two stages. Stage I focused on locating collections. Stage II was devoted to the completion of NAGPRA inventories at facilities with collections containing human remains.

In all, the remains of 750 individuals and 1981 funerary objects are curated at the American Museum of Natural History and the Haffenreffer Museum. The remaining collections consist of a single long bone fragment at Wichita State University, and a 1921 collection from Colorado at the American Museum of Natural History.