Remains of Chirikof Island Alutiiq People Returned

Press Release: The Alutiiq Museum and Archaeological Repository

"More than half a century after they were taken from Chirikof Island, human remains representing at least 109 Alutiiq people will return to the Kodiak region. On Thursday, February 23, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service will transfer the remains to the Alutiiq Museum, Kodiak’s tribal repository, as a step in their repatriation to the Alutiiq community.

Collected in 1962 by physical anthropologists, the remains are largely from the Russian Orthodox cemetery in the historic village of Ukamak. About 100 miles south of Kodiak Island, Ukamak was the site of a Russian Artel from 1798 to 1867. Here, Alutiiq people lived and harvested sea lions, sea birds, and squirrels for the Russian American Company.

The remains of one hundred and three individuals come from the Ukamak cemetery, which was badly damage by coastal erosion in the early 1960s. Church records indicate that the cemetery was used till about 1870. They also provide the names of the individuals interred. Surnames link some of the dead to members of today’s Alutiiq community, demonstrating direct ancestral ties.

The remains of six additional people come from other Chirikof settlements and represent the region’s late prehistoric residents.

Since their collection, the human remains have been held by two universities–the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee and Indiana University at Bloomington. During this time, they were subjected to research without the knowledge or consent of the Alutiiq community, even after the passage of NAGPRA. The return represents the culmination of years of work by the Service, Alutiiq Museum, and Sun’aq Tribe, and an important step in closing a painful chapter in Alutiiq history. Alutiiq Museum Executive Director April Laktonen Counceller explains.

“The Alutiiq Museum and Alutiiq community have worked for over fifteen years, under three different museum directors, to bring these people home. I am so grateful that the Fish and Wildlife Service did not give up. We have also been helped by numerous others. The Russian Orthodox Church, St. Herman Theological Seminary Archives, Sun’aq Tribe, and Senator Dan Sullivan have all advocated for this homecoming, and I am truly grateful for their support.”

The Alutiiq Museum will hold the remains while the repatriation process unfolds. Federal law requires that such collections be inventoried to provide an accurate summary of their contents. Then, a notice summarizing the inventory must be published in the federal register. The Service is currently completing the federal notice, a process that will take several months. When the process is complete, the Sun’aq Tribe plans to file a repatriation claim on behalf of all Kodiak Alutiiq people.

While the Alutiiq Museum does not normally hold human remains, the Alutiiq Heritage Foundation Board of Directors, in consultation with Sun’aq tribal leaders, agreed that this was a unique circumstance. According to Counceller, community leaders felt that it was most appropriate to return these Alutiiq people to their homeland as soon as possible.

“There were other facilities that could have accommodated the remains during the repatriation process, but we wanted them to be cared for in Kodiak and in our own museum. The Kodiak Alutiiq repatriation council identified reclaiming our Chirikof ancestors as their top priority. There was no reason to wait any longer,” she said."

More here.

It’s official: Kennewick Man is Native American

The Seattle Times

April 27, 2016

Five tribes claiming Kennewick Man as a relative will work together to rebury him after the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said Wednesday it has validated the skeleton is Native American.

Scientists at the University of Chicago this month documented they were able to independently validate last summer’s scientific findings as to the skeleton’s ancestry by at least three lines of evidence, said John Novembre, associate professor of human genetics at the University of Chicago, who led the review.

The validation was part of a federal process to allow repatriation of the skeleton. The team’s finding clears the way for the next steps, in which potential claimants of the remains must document their cultural connection to the Ancient One, as tribes refer to the skeleton.

Kennewick Man is one of the oldest and most complete skeletons discovered in North America, dating back nearly 9,000 years. Debate has continued since the 1996 discovery as to whether the remains should continue to be studied by scientists, or reburied, as tribes have long wished.

More here. 

Portland Art Museum Will Return Medicine Bundles to Crow Tribe

Indian Country Today Media Network
August 6, 2015

Eighteen Crow medicine bundles will soon be on their way from Portland, Oregon, back to the Crow people in Montana.

According to The Oregonian, a collector named Elizabeth Cole Butler acquired the bundles from dealers of Native antiquities, beginning in 1970 and continuing through 1990. Butler donated all of them to the Portland Art Museum.

In Crow culture, a medicine bundle is a container made of animal skin that may contain any number of small sacred items -- for example beads, shells, seeds, wood, feathers and arrowheads. "They're profoundly sacred objects, each unique to an individual," Donald Urquhart, the Portland Art Museum's director of collections and exhibitions, toldThe Oregonian.  He added that the contents "could be related to burial, ceremony and hunting."

The personal nature of Crow medicine bundles provides an interesting twist in this particular repatriation story: The museum had long offered to return them to the Tribe. The medicine bundles were on a list of objects that the museum furnished the Tribe as dictated by the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), but in 1993 John Pretty-on-Top, the Crow representative, said that the items "would not be of interest to the tribe as a whole since bundles are exclusively owned by individuals," according to Department of Interior records.

Read more here.

NAGPRA Awards $1.5 Million for Repatriation of Ancestors' Remains and Native Objects

Indian Country Today Media Network, July 23, 2015

Remains of more than 300 ancestors could soon return home, thanks to 1.5 million in grants awarded to 15 tribes and 16 museums under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA).

Tribes received a total of 37 grants, the National Park Service (NPS) said, with the rest going to museums that will help identify, document and return ancestral remains and cultural objects to their place of origination. The grants range from $2,407 to $76,753.

“These grants address the basic desire to have stewardship over one’s own heritage,” said NPS Director Jonathan B. Jarvis in a statement. “The NAGRPA process provides the opportunity for ancestral remains and cultural items to be returned to American Indian and Native Hawaiian peoples.”

Besides repatriating more than 300 ancestors, the grants will enable the return of “numerous funerary and traditional items to Indian tribes across the United States, travel by Indian tribal representatives to consultations with museums holding potentially affiliated remains and other cultural items, specialized training for both museums and tribes on NAGPRA, and the development of a tribal coalition to collaborate and facilitate the repatriation of significant collections currently in museums,” the NPS said.

More here.

NAGPRA Grants Awarded to Eight Tribes

The National Park Service today announced the award of eight Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) Repatriation grants totaling $74,348. The grants will assist in the repatriation of individuals and sacred objects, objects of cultural patrimony and funerary objects back to the tribes.

“The work funded by these grants is a step toward addressing past violations of the treatment of human remains and sacred objects of native peoples, while restoring the ability of American Indian and Native Hawaiian peoples to be stewards of their own ancestral dead and cultural heritage.” said National Park Service Director Jonathan B. Jarvis.

FY 2015 NAGPRA Grant Recipients

Native Village of Barrow: AK $14,904

Native Village of Barrow: AK $15,000

The Regents of the University of California: CA $6,309

Smith River Rancheria: CA $14,944

Bay Mills Indian Community: MI $1,937

Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe of Michigan: MI $14,836

The Chickasaw Nation: OK $4,103

Sweet Briar College, Art Collection and Galleries: VA $ 2,315

Total: $74,348

Last Day to Register: National Preservation Institute NAGPRA Training Opportunities

Musuem Anthropology previously published a post about the NPI NAGPRA Training Opportunities here. We would just like to remind our readers that today is the deadline to register for the Denver training. There are still registration and travel scholarships available! 

The grant application and other registration information is available at www.npi.org/register.html.

For more information, please contact Jere Gibber, Executive Director at 703.765.0100.

National Preservation Institute NAGPRA Training Opportunities

The National Preservation Institute (NPI) will once again offer NAGPRA trainings. Megon Noble and Jan Bernstein will co-teach two-day NAGPRA grant writing workshops. Eric Hemenway, a yet to be named  instructor, and I will take turns teaching one-day NAGPRA Essentials classes.

Scholarships and travel grants may be available. The grant application and other registration information is available at www.npi.org/register.html.

NAGPRA: Preparing for and Writing NAGPRA Grant Proposals

Learn how to assess the needs of your NAGPRA program, identify fundable projects, and write successful Consultation/Documentation and Repatriation grant proposals. An agenda is available at www.npi.org/sem-NAGPRAgrant.html.

Denver, CO — January 29-30, 2015 (Thursday-Friday)

Deadline to register: January 5, 2015

San Francisco, CA — February 10-11, 2015 (Tuesday-Wednesday)

Deadline to register: January 27, 2015

Oklahoma City, OK — September 9-10, 2015

Indianapolis, IN — September 29-30, 2015

Instructors

Jan Bernstein, Managing Director, Bernstein & Associates NAGPRA Consultants, works with Indian tribes, Native Hawaiian organizations, museums, and federal agencies to provide training, grant writing, strategic plan development/implementation, consultation facilitation, repatriation claim development, and reburial assistance

Megon Noble, NAGPRA project manager, University of California, Davis, coordinates NAGPRA compliance efforts for the campus; previously the Archaeology NAGPRA coordinator with the Burke Museum, University of Washington, and taught museums collections management

NAGPRA: Essentials

Austin, TX -- March 23, 2015 (Monday) 

Jan Bernstein is tentatively scheduled as instructor

Sacramento, CA -- May 8, 2015 (Friday)

Jan Bernstein is tentatively scheduled as instructor

Fredericksburg, VA -- October 30, 2015 (Friday) 

Eric Hemenway is tentatively scheduled as instructor

Madison, WI -- December 11, 2015 (Friday) 

Eric Hemenway is tentatively scheduled as instructor

For more information, contact Jere Gibber, Executive Director, 703.765.0100; 703.768.9350 fax

National Preservation Institute Seminars: NAGPRA: Writing Grant Proposals - January & February 2015

The National Preservation Institute, a nonprofit organization founded in 1980, educates those involved in the management, preservation, and stewardship of cultural heritage.

NAGPRA: Preparing for and Writing Grant Proposals

Denver, CO — January 29-30, 2015

Seminar held in cooperation with the National Park Service,

Intermountain Region and the National NAGPRA Program

Deadline to register: January 15, 2015

OR

NAGPRA: Preparing for and Writing Grant Proposals

San Francisco, CA — February 10-11, 2015

Seminar held in cooperation with the

National Park Service, National NAGPRA Program

and The Presidio Trust

Deadline to register: January 27, 2015

Scholarships and travel grants may be available.

The grant application and other registration information is available at www.npi.org/register.html.

Seminar description. The National NAGPRA Program offers grants to assist museums and Indian tribes with the compliance process under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA). The NAGPRA process may include consultation and documentation regarding human remains and cultural items, and their repatriation or disposition. Learn how to assess the needs of a NAGPRA program, identify fundable projects, and write successful Consultation/Documentation and Repatriation grant proposals. An agenda is available at www.npi.org/sem-NAGPRAgrant.html.

Instructors. Jan I. Bernstein, managing director, Bernstein & Associates NAGPRA Consultants, works with Indian tribes, Native Hawaiian organizations, museums, and federal agencies to provide training, grant writing, strategic plan development/implementation, consultation facilitation, repatriation claim development, and reburial assistance

Megon Noble, NAGPRA project manager, University of California, Davis, coordinates NAGPRA compliance efforts for the campus; previously the Archaeology NAGPRA coordinator with the Burke Museum, University of Washington, and taught museums collections management

Questions? Please contact us. Thank you.

Jere Gibber

Executive Director

National Preservation Institute

P.O. Box 1702, Alexandria, VA 22313

703.765.0100; 703.768.9350 fax

info@npi.org; www.npi.org

$1.5 Million In Grants Go Out To Help Tribes, Museums, Alaska Native Villages Regain Human Remains And Cultural Objects

The National Parks Traveller

August 23, 2014

The National Park Service has released more than $1.5 million in grants under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act to assist museums, Indian tribes, and Alaska native villages to document and return human remains and cultural objects to their native people. Grants were awarded both to support the efforts of museums, Indian tribes, Alaska native villages and Native Hawaiian organizations in the documentation of NAGPRA-related objects (consultation/documentation grants), and to pay for the costs associated with the return of the remains and objects to their native people (repatriation grants). This year, 29 grants totaling $1,471,625.00 are going to 24 recipients for consultation/documentation projects, and $95,423.40 is going to eight repatriation projects. “NAGPRA provides an opportunity to correct the mistreatment of native peoples' ancestral dead by returning the sacred objects and cultural heritage that have been removed from their communities,” said National Park Service Director Jonathan B. Jarvis. “These grants will continue the process by which more than 10,000 Native American human remains and one million sacred objects that have been returned to tribes and Native Hawaiian organizations. More here.

Federal Government To Investigate Handling of Ancient Remains in Iowa

Ryan Foley, Associated Press for the San Francisco Gate

May 27, 2014

 A retired superintendent of Effigy Mounds National Monument is facing a federal investigation three years after making a startling disclosure: He had a box of long-missing ancient Native American remains in his garage.

The investigation is separate from a recent scandal involving another former superintendent who oversaw $3 million in illegal construction projects at the 2,526-acre site in northeastern Iowa's wooded hills along the Mississippi River. But it has become another headache for the National Park Service, which operates the property that features 200 Native American burial and ceremonial mounds, some of which are shaped like animals.

The case started in 2011 when former superintendent Tom Munson acknowledged that he had a box filled with prehistoric bones in the garage of his Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, home and returned them to the monument. Those artifacts, including fragments of jaws and leg bones between 1,000 and 2,000 years old, had been housed in the museum's collection after they were found at the site in the 1950s. The revelation of their whereabouts outraged some representatives of the 12 tribes who are affiliated with the monument and consider the site sacred.

More here. 

Southern Ute Culture Department to Hold NAGPRA Conference

The Southern Ute Culture Department is holding a NAGPRA Conference at the Southern Ute Cultural Center and Museum from May 20-21st.

It is open to the Southern Ute Tribal Leaders, Tribal Members, Families, Southern Ute Tribal Employees and for the general public. 

They will be presenting basic information to
-Learn about NAGPRA repatriation activities,
-To better understand and gain awareness regarding ancestral remains, sacred objects, objects of funerary patrimony and its implications. 
-The interacting roles between the Three Ute Tribes, State Government, Park Services, National Forest Services, etc. 

More here. 

Student Panel Questions Peabody Ownership

This is Student Panel is a result of the claims made in the previous post. 

Stephanie Rogers, Yale Daily News 
Monday, April 21, 2014

A recent campus debate about two carvings at the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History has sparked a broader discussion about the role of museums to return culturally important objects.

At a panel discussion in the Yale Hall of Graduate Studies last Tuesday afternoon, panelist Ashley Dalton ’15 outlined the history of these objects and called upon museums like the Peabody to publicly address the historical trauma with which they are associated while still emphasizing native continuity and agency. Dalton and Peabody officials agree that the museum has no current legal obligation to return the objects. However, other speakers from University of Massachusetts Amherst and the Smithsonian who presented on other topics related to artifact repatriation — the act of returning a cultural object home — argued that the museum should still be even more proactive to obtain formal written requests to return objects that are sacred to native groups.

“Museums have a role to step up and create a cultural healing by recognizing our nation’s past and recognizing [a tribe’s] agency,” Dalton said.

The two carvings were taken from a Tlingit village on the coast of Alaska during the Harriman Expedition of 1899 led by railroad tycoon Edward Harriman. At the time, the carvings belonged to a clan who left the Tlingit village, and were seemingly abandoned after the clan fled a smallpox outbreak. Harriman and his crew removed the carvings along with other objects like totem poles, house posts, and ceremonial items and distributed the objects to museums across the country.

More here. 

Yale Faces New Claims Of Stolen Artifacts

New Haven Independent 

Thomas MacMillan, April 16, 2014

A year and a half after Yale returned the last of hundreds of Machu Picchu artifacts to Peru, the Yale Peabody Museum faces a new charge of cultural theft—this time about two carvings from a native Alaskan tribe.

Two Tlingit carvings on display at the museum are stolen property, and should be sent back to their owners in Alaska, according to several students and scholars who spoke Tuesday afternoon at Yale.

That allegation emerged Tuesday afternoon at a panel discussion in Yale’s Hall of Graduate Studies on the topic of artifact repatriation—the returning of museum relics to the people to which they historically belonged.

Yale junior Ashley Dalton presented research on two artifacts currently in the Yale Peabody Natural History Museum’s collection, “totem crest” carvings of a bird and of a bear. Those artifacts were taken, Dalton said, from a Tlingit village in Alaska in 1899 by members of the Harriman expedition. The carvings, one of which marked a funerary site, were taken without permission, along with a host of other Native American artifacts.

More here. 

Penn Museum: Behind the Glass, a Contested History

The Daily Pennsylvanian
Jill Castellano, March 2, 2014

[...] The exhibition opening demonstrates the collaboration and efforts of over 80 Native Americans from many backgrounds and cultures, the curator said.

But the stories behind some of the new artifacts that line the pristine museum walls have more complicated histories mired in legal battles.

When a representative of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology visited a Native American clan in September of 1995 , members broke down at the sight of objects sacred to their clan, which had been lost to them for decades.

After years of negotiation, hundreds of pages of documents and a federal review panel in a fight for ownership of these cultural artifacts, at least two of them are now part of the new Native American Voices exhibit.

And members of the T’akdeintaan clan are still fighting for what they believe is theirs.

More here. 

Emergence of Rare Tlingit War Helmet Raises a Chorus for Homecoming

Alaska Dispatch
by Laurel Andrews, January 7, 2014

"Tribal leaders are hoping a rare Tlingit war helmet that sat mislabeled in museum archives in western Massachusetts for more than 100 years will be returned to Southeast Alaska now that the artifact, considered a sacred object, has been brought to light.

The helmet, uncovered this autumn in the Springfield Science Museum archives, was put on display in late December. Records show that the object was accepted into the museum’s collections around the turn of the 20th century, spokesperson Matt Longhi said. The helmet was logged into museum archives simply, and incorrectly, as “Aleutian hat.”

But after scrutiny by curator of anthropology Dr. Ellen Savulis, and with coordination with the Alaska State Museum, the helmet was quickly identified as a rare Tlingit war helmet.

The helmet is one of less than 100 known in existence today, said Alaska State Museum curator of collections Steve Henrikson. It’s likely from the early to mid-1800s, and was intended for use in battle by Tlingit warriors. Only three or four of those helmets remain in Alaska today, Henrikson said."

More here. 

Sacred Items Returned to Menominee Indian Tribe

By Indian Country Today Media Network staff, Indian Country Today, November 12, 2013

The Athens County Historical Society & Museum in Athens, Ohio recently returned some items to the Menominee Indian Tribe in Wisconsin—most notably two eagle feather headdresses.

More here and here.

Where Words Mean as Much as Objects: Apaches’ Dispute With American Museum of Natural History

Four years ago, the American Museum of Natural History agreed to return to the Apaches 77 objects from its collection, including headwear, feathers, bows and arrows, medicine rings and satchels containing crystals and charms. 

But none of the items have gone back because of an unusual, if persistent, disagreement with representatives of the Apaches over whether the museum will officially designate the items as sacred relics that should never have been taken.  

More here.

Op-Ed: UC and Native Americans: Unsettled remains

UC campuses have been too slow in returning Native American bones and artifacts.

In 1974, Berkeley's distinguished anthropologist Robert Heizer issued a public mea culpa for the practices of his profession in treating "California Indians as though they were objects." In particular, he apologized for the "continued digging up of the graves of their ancestors."

In 1999, the department of anthropology at Berkeley issued an apology to the cultural descendants of Ishi, a Yahi native, for sending his brain to the Smithsonian after his death in 1916. "We regret our department's role in what happened to Ishi, a man who had already lost all that was dear to him."

This was a good beginning to a journey of accountability and reconciliation. But since then, the University of California has been largely silent about its role as the legal owner of a vast collection of native remains stashed in basements in campuses throughout the state. It owes at the very least 10,000 more apologies.

More at the Los Angeles Times here.

Solicitation of NAGPRA Review Committee Member

SUMMARY: The National Park Service is soliciting nominations for one member of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Review Committee. The Secretary of the Interior will appoint the member from nominations submitted by Indian tribes, Native Hawaiian organizations, and traditional Native American religious leaders. The nominee need not be a traditional Indian religious leader. Nominations must include the following information:

1. Nominations by traditional religious leaders: Nominations must be submitted with the nominator's original signature and daytime telephone number. The nominator must explain that he or she is a traditional religious leader.
2. Nominations by Indian tribes or Native Hawaiian organizations: Nominations must be submitted on official tribal or organization letterhead with the nominator's original signature and daytime telephone number. The nominator must be the official authorized by the tribe or organization to submit nominations in response to this solicitation. The nomination must include a statement that the nominator is so authorized.
3. A nomination must include the following information:
• The nominee's name, postal address, daytime telephone number, and email address; and
• The nominee's resume or brief biography emphasizing the nominee's NAGPRA experience and ability to work effectively as a member of an advisory board.

DATES: Nominations must be received by July 15, 2013.

Please visit the National NAGPRA website for more information.

NAGPRA Grant Writing Workshop

The National Preservation Institute, a nonprofit organization founded in 1980, educates those involved in the management, preservation, and stewardship of cultural heritage. The 2013 National Preservation Institute seminar schedule is now available online at www.npi.org. The 2013 NPI News Release includes the calendar and seminar descriptions - www.npi.org/NewsRelease2013.pdf. 

Advance registration rate through April 8, 2013 

NAGPRA Essentials: Process and Grant Writing 
Denver, CO — May 20-21, 2013 

Review the compliance process for the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) for Indian tribes, Native Hawaiian organizations, federal agencies, and museums. Explore how consultation can inform inventories, summaries, and cultural affiliation, and the resulting notices, repatriations, and dispositions. Learn how to assess the needs of a NAGPRA program, identify fundable projects, and write and manage successful NAGPRA Consultation/Documentation and Repatriation grants. An agenda is available online at www.npi.org. 

Instructors. Jan I. Bernstein, managing director, Bernstein & Associates NAGPRA Consultants; facilitates all aspects of NAGPRA compliance, including strategic planning, grant writing, consultation facilitation, and repatriation, for Indian tribes, Native Hawaiian organizations, museums, and federal agencies. Megon Noble, assistant archaeology collections manager and NAGPRA coordinator, Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture, managing NAGPRA responsibilities including inventory, consultation, determinations of cultural affiliation, and repatriations. 

Registration. A registration form is available online at www.npi.org/register.html. The advance registration rate is available through April 8—$450 (2 days). The regular registration rate after that date is $500. 

Questions? Please contact us. Thank you. 

Jere Gibber 
Executive Director 
National Preservation Institute 
P.O. Box 1702, Alexandria, VA 22313 
703/765-0100; 703/768-9350 fax 
info@npi.org; www.npi.org