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Subject: [GRANNYS-NA-PANTRY] Native American remains lost in nation's museums
Date: Fri, 1 Sep 2000 12:02:20 EDT

Native American remains lost in nation's museums

By MICHELLE LOCKE,

The Associated Press


BERKELEY, Calif. (August 27, 2000 6:48 p.m. EDT http://www.nandotimes.com )

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The return of Ishi's remains to his Indian homeland 80 years after

scientists

removed his brain in the interests of science has drawn new attention to the


quest to retrieve ancestral bones from museum basements.


Ishi, it turns out, is an exception. Ten years after Congress ordered Native

American remains returned to their tribes, only 10 percent of about 200,000

remains estimated to be in public collections are even officially

inventoried, federal records show.


With more than 8,000 Indian remains, the collection of the University of

California, Berkeley, is third only to those at the Smithsonian and Harvard.

So far, however, the school has returned only an amulet and an earthenware

jar.


While a variety of factors lie behind the delays, two stand out:

Institutions have been slow to reveal their holdings to Indians as they try

to match bones to tribes, and federal officials have been slow to do

anything about the data that have been turned in.


Underlying the logistical logjam is a clash of science and sacrament - a

struggle to balance the study of the rites of man with the rights of men.


"It really comes down to a distinction between thinking that you own remains

or sacred objects versus understanding that you are custodians or stewards

for them," said Martin Sullivan, a historian who recently completed eight

years on the national advisory committee overseeing the repatriation law.


Scientists who see repatriation in terms of lost research opportunities are

wrong, said G. Peter Jemison, repatriation coordinator for the Seneca Nation

of Indians in New York State.


"They're going to come in contact with the living people and they're going

to learn so much more than they're ever going to learn by using a ruler,"

Jemison said.


Ishi walked out of the wilderness of Northern California in 1911, the last

survivor of his tribe. He was taken in by researchers and lived out his days

at a museum where he demonstrated his skills for curious crowds.


When Ishi died in 1916, his brain was removed - against his request not to

be autopsied - and his body cremated. His brain was sent to the Smithsonian,

where it remained largely forgotten until a group of California Indians

began searching for him in 1997.


Although Ishi was known as the "last of the Yahi," the Smithsonian ruled

that Ishi had ties to a surviving tribe, which decided to reunite his brain

with his cremated remains for burial in a secret ceremony near Mount Lassen.


"Hopefully, he will be at last at rest and at peace and free to join his

family and ancestors," Mickey Gemmill, a member of the Pit River tribe, told

the Mercury News before he and other tribe members went to Washington

earlier this month to take custody of the brain.


The 1990 federal law requires all federally funded agencies and museums to

return remains. Inventories were to be completed in 1995. After an extension

and a threat of fines, Berkeley finally finished its inventory of remains on

June 30.


About 17 percent of Berkeley's remains have been determined to be affiliated

with a particular tribe, meaning they can be claimed. Three requests are

pending.


Compliance with the law is overseen by the National Park Service, but there

is a two-year backlog on publishing the legal notices required before some

items can be returned, said John Robbins, NPS assistant director for

cultural resources.


The parks service doesn't keep track of remains returned, only of remains

inventoried.


Despite the headaches, Sullivan believes overall that the law is working.


"What's happened is there's finally a national standard that recognizes

these human rights," Sullivan said.


Copyright © 2000 Nando Media




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