NAGPRA Consultation/Documentation Grants FY2018 | P18AS00051

Opportunity Information: Apply for P18AS00051

NAGPRA Consultation/Documentation Grants FY2018 (Funding Opportunity Number P18AS00051) was a discretionary grant program offered by the U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, under CFDA 15.922. The program was created on January 2, 2018, with an application closing date of March 9, 2018. It anticipated making about 25 awards, with a maximum award amount (ceiling) of $90,000 per project. The funding activity areas were broadly framed across cultural affairs-related fields, including arts, education, humanities, and legal services, reflecting the program's focus on compliance work, research, and formal government-to-government or institution-to-tribe engagement required by federal law.

The core purpose of the opportunity was to fund work specifically allowed under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), with grant funds restricted to two connected categories: consultation and documentation. Consultation projects were intended to support direct coordination and communication among museums, federal agencies, tribes, and Native Hawaiian organizations as applicable, with a practical emphasis on completing or improving the NAGPRA inventory process and handling summary-related requests. In other words, consultation funding was meant to help applicants compile or revise inventories required under NAGPRA and to make or respond to requests concerning items included in NAGPRA summaries, activities that often require structured meetings, careful information sharing, and formal follow-through to meet statutory and regulatory expectations.

Documentation projects, by contrast, focused on building the factual record needed to make informed decisions under NAGPRA. This included research and analysis to determine the geographic origin of Native American cultural items, assess cultural affiliation, and clarify the circumstances of how items were acquired. The emphasis was on establishing the basic historical and evidentiary foundations that underpin NAGPRA determinations, such as provenance research, archival work, collection record review, and other methods that help resolve what an item is, where it came from, which community it is connected to, and how it entered a collection.

Both consultation and documentation were presented as steps toward concrete outcomes under NAGPRA rather than ends in themselves. The program highlighted that these projects should lead to determinations about control, treatment, and disposition of NAGPRA cultural items. In practice, that means moving collections and responsible entities closer to decisions and actions such as identifying the appropriate parties with a claim of control, determining appropriate care and handling while decisions are pending, and ultimately supporting lawful and respectful disposition outcomes, including repatriation when warranted.

Eligibility for the program was broad and included state, county, and city or township governments; public and state-controlled institutions of higher education; private institutions of higher education; federally recognized Native American tribal governments; and nonprofit organizations with IRS 501(c)(3) status other than institutions of higher education. The listing also included an "others" category subject to additional eligibility details in the full announcement, signaling that certain additional entity types may have been considered depending on the circumstances and the program's specific eligibility clarifications. Overall, the opportunity was designed to help a range of institutions and governments do the consultation-heavy, documentation-intensive work that NAGPRA requires, with the goal of producing well-supported determinations and improving the timeliness and quality of outcomes for Native American cultural items covered by the law.

• The Department of the Interior, National Park Service in the arts (see cultural affairs in cfda), education, humanities (see cultural affairs in cfda), law, justice and legal services, other (see text field entitled explanation of other category of funding activity for clarification) sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "NAGPRA Consultation/Documentation Grants FY2018" 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 Jan 02, 2018.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Mar 09, 2018. (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 $90,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 25 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, County governments, City or township governments, Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), Nonprofits having a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Private institutions of higher education, Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

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