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‘An unacceptable affront to the First Amendment,’ free speech attorney says
A University of Tennessee Chattanooga policy that restricts the use of Native American artifacts, including taking photos of them, is prompting concerns from a free speech attorney.
The public university’s Native American Graves and Repatriation Policy applies to faculty, staff, and students, and has to do with artifacts in its collection. It seeks to comply with a federal law of the same name that requires public institutions to offer to return Native American human remains and other sacred items in their collections to the tribal descendants.
However, the university’s policy goes beyond the scope of the federal regulation, attorney Ross Marchand with the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression told The College Fix.
“This is an unacceptable affront to the First Amendment, which protects Americans’ right to film in public places. UTC should remove these NAGPRA policy provisions and limit restrictions to physical possession of remains and objects currently in the university’s custody,” Marchand said in a recent email interview.
Among other things, the policy restricts the use of “Objects of Cultural Patrimony” in research and teaching without prior authorization from the university’s NAGPRA committee.
Not human remains or sacred relics, these objects are any artifacts deemed to have “traditional or cultural importance” to tribes.
University “faculty inhabit territory, conduct research, and curate collections generated within the ancestral homelands of tribal nations, the original inhabitants of these lands,” the policy states, adding that the campus community has an “ethical obligation” to treat these objects respectfully.
The policy, which was approved in late 2024, also prohibits new photography of these materials without the permission of the tribes.
“No new images (photography or film) of NAGPRA materials will be generated unless explicit permission is received from Lineal Descendants, Indian Tribes, and/or Native Hawaiian Organizations,” it reads.
“Images of Ancestral Human Remains, Funerary Objects, Sacred Objects, and Objects of Cultural Patrimony will be redacted from public versions of prior UTC reports of investigation pending completion of a NAGPRA inventory and/or summary,” the policy states.
The Fix reached out to the University of Tennessee’s media relations office to clarify how the restrictions apply to students and professors, and ask if professors need permission to show images or artifacts to their classrooms.
UTC spokesperson Jay Blackman told The Fix in a recent email that the policy “applies to faculty, staff, and students of UTC and is intended to ensure compliance with the federal NAGPRA legislation.”
Blackman also said the policy “does not restrict in any way the use of images in the classroom.”
When asked to specify what the image restriction applies to, The Fix was told that the policy “restricts the generation of new images of items subject to NAGPRA (e.g., ancestral human remains, funerary objects, etc.) without first consulting with the appropriate tribal groups.”
However, Marchand with FIRE told The Fix that his organization has significant concerns with policies like these at higher education institutions.
“… the university’s pre-approval requirement for ‘research or teaching activities’ related to Native American cultural items, funerary objects, or human remains cannot be squared with the First Amendment or academic freedom,” he said.
He also took issue with the image restrictions, telling The Fix that “the policy’s restriction on generating ‘new images (photography or film) of NAGPRA materials’ without permission is extraordinarily broad.”
Marchand worried that students or faculty could get in trouble for simply snapping a picture or recording video in a public place where an artifact is currently being displayed.
His campus free speech organization has spoken out against similar image restrictions in the past.
Last year, FIRE wrote to the Los Rios Community College District in California three times, calling for the end of “essentially a complete ban on faculty and students displaying ‘images and reproductions of Native American human remains.’”
MORE: UCLA museum removes hundreds of Native American artifacts, photos at tribe’s request
