March 22, 2016
Dr. Vincas P. Steponaitis, past president of SAA and former chair of the Board of Directors of the Archaeological Conservancy, has been appointed to serve on the Smithsonian Institution’s Native American Repatriation Review Committee. Nominated for the committee by SAA, Dr. Steponaitis currently serves as Chair of the Curriculum in Archaeology, Director of the Research Laboratories of Archaeology, and Professor of Anthropology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Dr. Steponaitis was a member of SAA’s task force (later committee) on repatriation issues, and was intimately involved with the negotiations leading to the creation of both the National Museum of the American Indian Act of 1989, and the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990.
Read the nomination letter here.