UCLA School of Law

Documenting contemporary difficulties in realizing indigenous property rights, this article posits that human rights and property rights are inextricably linked. The ability to hold property and wield power is essential to the exercise of other basic human rights. Thus, the recognition of property rights is critical as it allows groups to function as “economic actors” in society. Because classical property models operate to deprive indigenous peoples of the right to control their own property — tangible and intangible — they are often powerless to exercise their human rights. This article contends that the human rights goals of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) will only be realized through a fundamental shift in thinking from an individual rights-oriented property model to one capable of accommodating both the rights and responsibilities inherent in property ownership. Finally, this article asserts that it is necessary to move beyond the classical property model — one which considers the rights but not the obligations of individual property owners — to new models of property capable of reconceptualizing ownership and entitlement for the protection of indigenous peoples’ human rights and continued existence.