Tunica-Biloxi Tribe & the Paragon Resort
​February 25, 26 & 27, 2025

​The Association’s “10th Annual Repatriation Conference: Igniting Change” continues our longstanding legacy to provide comprehensive training and expertise at a grassroots level to strengthen our collective futures. The 10th Annual Repatriation Conference will be hosted by the Tunica-Biloxi Tribe at their Paragon Resort in Marksville, Louisiana on February 25, 26 & 27, 2025. 
 
The theme Igniting Change reflects the Association’s commitment to sparking meaningful progress in repatriation efforts. By addressing the harms of the past and pushing for accountability and collaboration, the Association aims to inspire transformative change in the way institutions engage with Native Nations. This year’s conference will focus on creating new pathways for collaboration, implementing updated laws and regulations, and ensuring the return of Ancestors, their burial belongings, and sensitive cultural heritage.
The Conference will be an intensive training experience and call upon our collective courage to spark respectful and collaborative repatriation
practices that recognize Native Peoples as the true holders and carriers of their own diverse cultures.

This year, the structure of the annual conference has been redesigned to encourage more meaningful interactions through small group trainings and workshops. This Conference will offer comprehensive interactive training on the new Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) regulations, which went into effect in January 2024, provide strict timelines, deference to Native Traditional Knowledge, and robust consultation. Attendees will engage directly with the new regulations and learn best practices for implementation with the guidance of experts, ensuring they walk away with practical, actionable insights. The conference will also focus on international repatriation, illicit trafficking and other issues concerning the protection of Native cultural heritage.

​Together, we can ignite profound change when we recognize the harms of the past and actively work together to tend our new fire.  
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The Association welcomes all Conference attendees in-person for this 3-day interactive training that will provide educational opportunities through keynote speakers, small group interactive workshops, and special cultural events. The Conference is intended for Native Nation and Native Hawaiian Organization leaders, practitioners, Elders and representatives, museums, institutions, government agencies, academics, attorneys, collectors, artists, cultural preservationists and others engaged or interested in the return of diverse cultural heritage.    

Without culture, we cannot exist as distinct and sovereign peoples, and we lose our way. The vision of the Association is to create a world where diverse Native cultures are lived, protected and respected. The Association has been a leader in protecting Cultural Sovereignty – the things that make us who we are as Indigenous Peoples – through our targeted initiatives in repatriation and sacred relationships initiatives, as well as ensuring that culture is passed on through our youth initiatives. The Association has advocated for the protection and repatriation of Ancestors, cultural items and sacred lands for more than 100 years, including the development of the National Museum of the American Indian Act, the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, and the Safeguarding Tribal Objects of Patrimony Act, and other policies and regulations that support the return and protection of our cultural heritage. The Association also provides training and technical assistance to Native Nations and others and is involved with repatriation of private collections both domestically and internationally from institutions, individuals and auctions.  ​

Keynote Speakers

Abigail Echo-Hawk, MA is a citizen of the Pawnee Nation and the Executive Vice President at Seattle Indian Health Board and the Director of the Urban Indian Health Institute (UIHI). The mission of the UIHI is to decolonize data for Indigenous Peoples, by Indigenous Peoples. Abigail directs a team of researchers, evaluators and epidemiologists dedicated to restoring Indigenous scientific knowledge systems. UIHI was established as a Division of the Seattle Indian Health Board, a community health center for urban American Indians and Alaska Natives (AI/ANs). The UIHI is one of 12 Tribal epidemiology centers (TECs) funded by the Indian Health Service (IHS). While the other 11 TECs work with Tribes regionally, the UIHI focuses on the nationwide urban AI/AN population. 
Chip Colwell is the founding editor-in-chief of SAPIENS, a digital anthropology magazine of the Wenner-Gren Foundation. From 2007-2020, he was the Senior Curator of Anthropology at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, and has held fellowships and grants with the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, National Science Foundation, National Endowment for the Humanities, and J. William Fulbright Program. He is the author and editor of 13 books, including Objects of Survivance: A Material History of American Indian Education (with Lindsay Montgomery) and Plundered Skulls and Stolen Spirits: Inside the Fight to Reclaim Native America’s Culture, which won six prizes including the 2020 Society for Historical Archaeology James Deetz Book Award. His essays and editorials have appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Guardian, and many other popular outlets.

Movie Night

Join us for a The Great Salish Heist on Tuesday night at the Paragon Theater!

​When ceremonial items are removed from burial sites, bad things happen—no one knows this better than Steve Joe, a traditional archeologist for the Moquahat people. Once respected, Steve’s life fell apart after personal tragedies, and he believes the misfortune in his life and community stems from the theft of ceremonial items. Teaming up with a group of unlikely allies from the Rez, Steve plans a daring heist to reclaim the items from a museum with high-tech security. But complications arise when a dangerous Russian gangster offers to finance the mission, leaving Steve to navigate betrayal, redemption, and a clever double-cross to protect what is rightfully his people’s.

Support Our Repatriation Work

Purchasing this shirt demonstrates your commitment to human rights and equality!
Now offering two different options for the front! Explore the Conference shirts with options for everyone, including hoodies ($49.99), t-shirts ($29.99), and long-sleeve tees ($34.99) in a variety of colors and sizes up to 4X.​ Prices do not include shipping.

This limited-edition shirt was designed by an Ojibwe, Anishinaabe artist to represent the 10th Annual Repatriation Conference theme "Igniting Change." CC Hovie, a citizen of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians is the Association's Public Affairs and Communications Director.

Thank you to our sponsors!