Montana Code 22-3-911. Agency and museum inventory of human skeletal remains and funerary objects
22-3-911. Agency and museum inventory of human skeletal remains and funerary objects. (1) An agency or museum that on or after May 2, 2001, has possession or control over human skeletal remains or funerary objects shall within 6 months complete an inventory of all human skeletal remains and funerary objects and, to the extent possible based on all information possessed by the agency or museum:
Terms Used In Montana Code 22-3-911
- Agency: means any department, bureau, commission, board, council, or political subdivision of the state of Montana, except an entity that is a cemetery board or has authority over a cemetery. See Montana Code 22-3-903
- Board: means the burial preservation board established in 22-3-804. See Montana Code 22-3-903
- Control: means having a legal interest in human skeletal remains or funerary objects sufficient to lawfully permit an agency or museum to treat the object as part of its collection for purposes of this part whether or not the human skeletal remains or funerary objects are in the physical custody of the agency or museum. See Montana Code 22-3-903
- Cultural affiliation: means the existence of a shared group identity that can reasonably be traced historically or anthropologically between a tribal group and an identifiable earlier tribe. See Montana Code 22-3-903
- Funerary objects: means objects that, as part of a death rite or ceremony, are reasonably believed to have been placed with human skeletal remains at a specific burial site either at the time of death or later and which human skeletal remains are currently in the possession or control of an agency, museum, or person, either along with the human skeletal remains or that can be identified by a preponderance of the evidence to be related to specific known human skeletal remains not currently in the possession or control of the agency, museum, or person. See Montana Code 22-3-903
- Human skeletal remains: has the meaning provided in 22-3-803. See Montana Code 22-3-903
- Inventory: means an itemized list that summarizes the collection of human skeletal remains and funerary objects in the possession or control of an agency or museum. See Montana Code 22-3-903
- Museum: means an entity or state or local government agency, including an educational institution, that receives state funding. See Montana Code 22-3-903
- Possession: means having physical custody of human skeletal remains or funerary objects with a sufficient legal interest to lawfully treat the human skeletal remains or funerary objects as part of a collection. See Montana Code 22-3-903
- State: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the territories. See Montana Code 1-1-201
(a)identify the circumstances surrounding the acquisition of the human skeletal remains or funerary objects, including any geographical information available pertaining to the original location of the human skeletal remains or funerary objects;
(b)list in the inventory the human skeletal remains or funerary objects that are clearly identifiable as to cultural affiliation; and
(c)list the human skeletal remains or funerary objects that are not clearly identifiable as to cultural affiliation.
(2)Within 3 months of completing the inventory, the agency or museum shall provide a copy of the inventory to:
(a)the board;
(b)the state historic preservation office; and
(c)each tribal government located in Montana.
(3)The agency, museum, board, or state historic preservation office shall provide a copy of an inventory list or a portion of a list to any other requesting party only after the agency, museum, board, or office, pursuant to Article II, section 9, of the Montana constitution, has balanced the public’s right to the information and the individual privacy interest associated with the information and has determined that the right of individual privacy does not clearly exceed the merits of public disclosure.
(4)Following completion of the initial inventory, each agency or museum shall, whenever the agency or museum receives new human skeletal remains or funerary objects through a loan or donation, update its inventory list within 6 months of the loan or donation. Upon completion, the agency or museum shall provide a copy of this update to the entities listed in subsection (2) within 3 months.