18 U.S.C. § 1170
Section 1170 · Illegal trafficking in Native American human remains and cultural items
This is § 4 of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act
Amended 3 times on record
Applied in 5 court decisions — leading case United States v. Kramer (1999)
Most recently applied in State v. Taylor (December 2011)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Whoever knowingly sells, purchases, uses for profit, or transports for sale or profit, the human remains of a Native American without the right of possession to those remains as provided in the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act shall be fined in accordance with this title, or imprisoned not more than 1 year and 1 day, or both, and in the case of a second or subsequent violation, be fined in accordance with this title, or imprisoned not more than 10 years, or both.
Whoever knowingly sells, purchases, uses for profit, or transports for sale or profit any Native American cultural items obtained in violation of the Native American Grave Protection and Repatriation Act shall be fined in accordance with this title, imprisoned not more than one year, or both, and in the case of a second or subsequent violation, be fined in accordance with this title, imprisoned not more than 10 years, or both.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Editorial Notes
References in Text
The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, referred to in text, is Pub. L. 101–601, Nov. 16, 1990, 104 Stat. 3048, which is classified principally to chapter 32 (§ 3001 et seq.) of Title 25, Indians. For complete classification of this Act to the Code, see Short Title note set out under section 3001 of Title 25 and Tables.
Amendments
2022—Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 117–258, § 4, substituted “1 year and 1 day” for “12 months” and “10 years” for “5 years”.
Subsec. (b). Pub. L. 117–258, § 4(1), substituted “10 years” for “5 years”.
1994—Pub. L. 103–322 substituted “Illegal trafficking in Native American human remains and cultural items” for “Illegal Trafficking in Native American Human Remains and Cultural Items” in section catchline.