Native American artifacts and the need to return home

RAPID CITY—An ongoing issue, since it was made law, was the repatriation of items from Native American people. It could be as simple as a few arrowheads, a dress or as elaborate as artwork, tools and items dating back to early times, predating white man showing up lost off the continent.

These artifacts, various and a varied, come into public view in a few different ways. Some have already found their way into the public eye, via museums, where over 800,000 examples exist. Places like the University of California at Berkeley, and Ohio’s Connection, their state historical society, come to mind. While both hold a good amount of these artifacts, they also highlight the problem with keeping up on the laws regarding NAGPRA, or the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990. One of the easiest aspects of this Act, was that any museum that receives federal funding, should turn over items and artifacts, including human remains and culturally significant items. However, in the last 30 years, some folks do wonder why the process is dragging behind schedule. Some issues, on the museum side of things, is a lack of manpower. Sometimes it might be a funding issue. One major issue some museums are working with, is the lack of complete records from the early years, where documentation may be incomplete. The other side of the equation, stems from the lack of tribal parties, to find and confirm these articles, make a given trip and finish off the task needed.

Recently, one museum did take the proactive step. The Founders Museum, located in Barre, Mass. Is considered a private museum, and does not receive any federal funding to that regard. But, they did know some of their collection were listed as being part of the Wounded Knee massacre. The number of artifacts, which tribe members count as many as 200, is countered with an estimate of less than a dozen, according to the board president, Ann Meilus. Meilus, had held a discussion from more than a decade ago, that they had also talked to a tribal member regarding the artifacts.

The collection in mention, donated by Frank Root, was a 19^th Century traveling showman who claimed he’d acquired the objects from a man tasked with digging mass graves following the massacre. Among these items, is a lock of hair, reportedly cut from the scalp of Chief Spotted Elk, which he museum returned to one of the Lakota Sioux leader’s descendants in 1999. There also is a “Ghost Shirt”, a sacred garment that some tribe members tragically believed could make them bulletproof.

“He sort of exaggerated things” Meilus said of Root. “In reality, we’re not sure if any of the items were from Wounded Knee.”

The Department of the Interior, recently proposed some changed to the federal repatriation process to streamline the processes, ranging from clearer definitions, heftier penalties for noncompliance and precise deadlines. However some of the issues, on the tribal side is a lack of federal funding, hurts efforts fundamentally to do their work. Also at issue, was trying to explain the cultural significance of a given item, sought for repatriation, like how they might be used in ceremony. The issue, noted by Brian Vallo, a former governor at the Pueblo of Acoma in New Mexico, who was involved in the repatriation of 20 ancestors in 2020 from the National Museum of Finland. “That knowledge is only for us,” he said. “It’s not ever shared.”

Stacy Laravie, the historic preservation officer for the Ponca Tribe in Nebraska, is optimistic museum leaders are sincere in seeking to rectify the past, in the wake of the national reckoning on racism that’s reverberated through the country in recent years.

Last month, she traveled with a tribal delegation to Harvard to receive the tomahawk of her ancestor, the Native American civil rights leaders Chief Standing Bear. She’s also working with the university’s Peabody Museum to potentially repatriate other items significant to her tribe.

“We’re playing catch up from decades of things getting thrown under the rug,” Laravie said. “But I do believe their hearts are in the right place.”

Back at the Founders Museum, Jeffrey Not Help Him, and Oglala Sioux member whose family survived the Wounded Knee Massacre, hopes the items could return home this fall, as the museum has suggested.

“We look forward to putting them in a good place,” Not Help Him said. “A place of honor.”

(Contact Joe Budd at nativesunnews.today)

 

 

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