Returning Hopi Voices: Toward a Model for Community-Partnered Repatriation of Archived Traditional Music

Since the implementation of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) in 1996, Native American tribes, museums and universities have made significant efforts to facilitate the repatriation of human remains, sacred objects, and items of cultural patrimony. NAGPRA's emphasis on tangible objects has left many scholars and practitioners wondering about the repatriation of the intangible -- recorded oral histories and music for example -- that is often just as culturally sensitive as physical items. Questions also exist about how U.S. copyright law might act as a means for bringing about the repatriation of indigenous intellectual properties. Hopi traditional-music recordings made by Laura Boulton in the 1930s and 1940s, currently archived in Columbia University's Center for Ethnomusicology, provide a singular opportunity to investigate the concept of musical repatriation and the legal and cultural frameworks surrounding it. Research into questions surrounding the ownership of the recordings determined that many of the songs are still protected under statutory and common-law copyright and/or should be repatriated under NAGPRA. In some instances, the music on the recordings is actually the property of the spouse or descendants of the original performers according to federal laws; however, through an ethnographic study of the Hopi composer and interviews with Hopi leaders about cultural norms for musical ownership on Hopi, it appears that traditional Hopi music should actually be repatriated to Hopi villages and societies through their respective representatives, not necessarily to lineal descendants. This distinction is especially important in repatriation efforts given the sovereignty of the Hopi Tribe. Recommendations for the return of the Hopi songs as well as some potential uses for the music as discussed by Hopi leaders in the arts, education, cultural preservation, government and business are discussed and evaluated as potential models for community-partnered repatriation initiatives.