Martha says the sun comes out for "three seconds, two seconds" before a reburial, then rain or snow returns.
1. Heritage Voices episode 96 focuses on Pawnee Nation NAGPRA work and Martha Onlyachief's role in it.
2. Jessica Equinto hosts Martha Onlyachief, a Pawnee Nation tribal member from the Chawi band and a descendant of the Oto, Missouri tribe, whose job history includes the Pawnee Nation Cultural Resource Division.
3. The episode asks what NAGPRA work looks like when Pawnee relatives, funerary objects, sacred objects, and cultural patrimony objects are scattered across museums and institutions.
4. Martha says she started in Tribal Historic Preservation in 2014 and later became the NAGPRA coordinator after earning a bachelor's degree in Native American Indian Studies in 2019.
5. She says she first learned about NAGPRA through 1995 work connected to Walter Echo Hawk and the Native American Rights Fund.
6. She recounts an early memory from Salina, where relatives were kept on private land and people were charged to view them.
7. Martha says the Pawnee Nation now prioritizes relatives and funerary objects before sacred objects and cultural patrimony objects.
8. She explains that consultations grew from 3 to 4 a year to 43 in the past year and this year after new regulations.
9. She says she has closed eight consultations and taken relatives back into Pawnee possession.
10. Martha describes traveling to institutions, reviewing inventories, making cedar boxes, and waiting for Federal Register notices to run for 90 days.
11. She says the Pawnee Nation keeps a private burial site in Nebraska and does not disclose its location.
12. She says the burial process includes a Native American Church member, cedar smoke, a Director, a tipi person, and brand-new Pendleton blankets over the remains.
13. Martha says one institution visit led to a conflict when an older staff member insisted the objects were "ours" even though she was not Pawnee.
14. She says she stepped away, returned the next day, and later told a Pawnee delegation not to hear that claim repeated.
15. Martha says institutions in places like Rhode Island, Nebraska, Kansas, McCook, Denver, and California usually work through Zoom or phone meetings.
16. She says other tribes have different practices, so she asks institutions not to assume everyone uses Cedar, red felt, or the same ceremony.
17. The interview is conversational and personal, with Jessica asking follow-up questions and leaving space for Martha to explain details like county claims and consultation strategy.
18. Martha speaks openly about emotion, including crying while describing baby craniums, cradle boxes, and the pressure she feels during reburials.
19. Listeners interested in NAGPRA, tribal repatriation, and museum consultation work will get the most from this episode.
20. Listeners looking for a brisk legal explainer without personal stories may skip it.
