Donor consent

The state historical society shall endeavor to secure the written consent of all living donors and federal custodians of human skeletal remains and associated grave goods in its collections to release all such articles for reinterment. In those instances wherein such written consent is secured, and, in the case of donated articles, if no response is received from a donor within a period of thirty days from the date of mailing of the consent request, those human skeletal remains and associated grave goods involved in such consent requests must be released for reinterment, with timely notice of such authorized release having been given to the appropriate tribal entity, as specified in section 40-01-03-06. In those instances wherein a donor or a federal custodian initially denies consent to the release of any or all of the human skeletal remains and associated grave goods involved in the respective consent request, the state historical society shall immediately, upon receiving such denial of consent in each instance, notify the intertribal reinterment committee of the denial and, upon request, provide said committee with information relative to the reason for the denial, which information must also include the name and address of the donor or federal custodian denying consent. In each such instance of an initial denial of consent, the state historical society shall continue to maintain in its collections the human skeletal remains and associated grave goods at issue, until such time as written consent to release for reinterment is secured. This does not otherwise abridge any other custodial or contractual obligations of the society.