INTRODUCTION
This article explores the cross-cultural repatriation conflict between Indian tribes and the museum and archaeological communities in Nebraska during the 1980s and early 1990s. It seeks to provide an understanding of the issues (and nonissues) surrounding the enactment of the nation’s first general statute requiring public museums to repatriate Indian skeletal remains and burial offerings to Indian tribes for reburial. The focus is a case study of the bitter, widely publicized dispute between the Nebraska State Historical Society and the Pawnee Tribe of Oklahoma, an indigenous Nebraska tribe. The first part of the article is an overview of the competing interests of Indian tribes and the museum and archaeological communities, as manifested in the cross-cultural conflict. The second part delineates the legal foundation of tribal repatriation efforts and Nebraska’s landmark repatriation legislation. The third part presents an overview of the processes and politics that led to the enactment of the human rights law designed to resolve the cross-cultural conflict. The fourth part summarizes the provisions of the watershed legislation. The last part focuses on the implementation of the repatriation provisions of the statute in the context of the Pawnee Tribe of Oklahoma and the Nebraska State Historical Society.