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NAGPRA Manager Dr. Dana L. Pertermann serves as ‘voice for the past, advocate for the future’

Dr. Dana L. Pertermann, manager for the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), is working to make Auburn University the standard for treating Indigenous collections with care. 

NAGPRA is the federal law that governs a process for museums and federal agencies to return Native American remains, sacred objects and cultural artifacts to their tribal descendants.

Dr. Pertermann brings years of NAGPRA, teaching and military experience to her role at Auburn. Her job is to understand Auburn’s NAGPRA holdings and work with tribal partners to ensure they are handled and returned with dignity.

She began NAGPRA work at Western Wyoming College, one of only a few junior colleges that house a curatory facility for federal artifacts. She’s also worked in Oregon and Texas and moved to Auburn after serving as NAGPRA manager at New Mexico Highlands University.

Dr. Pertermann said Auburn’s willingness to move forward in the right way, as well as its designation as a top research university, brought her to the Plains.

“I'm very grateful to Auburn for what I've been presented with, which is the support and the opportunity to not only take care of the collection and do the repatriation process, but to do it right,” Dr. Pertermann said. “This is the opportunity to really shape how these collections finally get back home, and that’s where I see my calling, is to be that voice for these collections.”

The first step to repatriation is conducting a comprehensive inventory of NAGPRA collections across campus. So far, the NAGPRA office is rehousing a collection of more than 1,500 boxes and thousands of documents to museum-standard safekeeping.

Collections not affiliated with Native American partners, including Civil War artifacts, must also be properly cataloged and made available for research.

In two years, Dr. Pertermann and her team hope to have a full account of Auburn’s holdings to share with university leadership, tribal partners and the federal registrar.

While collections management is essential to complying with federal law, Dr. Pertermann said real success comes from consultations with the living relatives of the loved ones whose remains will be given peace.

“I want Auburn to become the gold standard in Alabama and for the rest of the nation for the relationships that we have with our tribal partners, the condition of the collection and how we engage with our tribal partners to be able to repatriate ancestors to work with collections in a respectful manner and help us move forward.”

Learn more about NAGPRA at Auburn University.

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