The Relationship Between Museums And First Nations Peoples On The Issue Of Repatriation

Museums serve as a way to connect with the public on a large scale, and the knowledge held within exhibits can be a fruitful experience for those who choose to visit these institutions. Experiencing all that a museum has to offer, no matter how well intentioned, can at times be confusing and overwhelming to the individuals visiting the site. The Smithsonian’s Museum of the American Indian dedicates itself to Native Americans in North and South America, and worked tirelessly with varying tribes to create a new standard. Some visitors and scholars found their work to be successful in design and approach while others found it to be lacking in execution. This institution does not approach Native American history in a familiar fashion; however it does cover an expansive period of time, and produces a great amount of detail while generating powerful emotions.

In the short story “Totem” by Thomas King, the relationship between the totem pole and the museum workers is predominantly negative. The relationship between the totem pole and the museum workers is depicted as being overpowering, authoritative, and entitled when the workers unceasingly try to remove the totem pole from the museum. Ultimately, the totem pole symbolizes the struggles, resilience, and perseverance of the Indigenous people in Canada.

The long history between Native American and Europeans are a strained and bloody one. For the time of Columbus’s subsequent visits to the new world, native culture has

Ancient artifacts are the symbols of human civilization. All of them are priceless and cannot be measured by currency value. Repatriate is a controversial problem because of the various reasons. For instance, the aggressor took all of the captures back to their home countries and showed them to the public, during the war. Voyagers took other countries’ artifact to prove they had been in that place. Archeologists, anthropologists, and scientists took the antiquities back to their university for research. Politicians used the regulation to move away a relic as decrease the power of a competitor. Thieves had stolen someone’s important items or expensive objects in a tomb in order to sell to the private collectors. It can’t be right to steal the items that belong to other people. When the owner found out the items were stolen, and then they hoped they could get them back. That was how repatriated started. Some antiquities were transported to the country that they do not belong to. Thus, there are some people think those ancient artifacts should be returned to the original country because it involves moral issues. However, some people think they shouldn’t be returned because they are the spoils of the wars. Most antiquities were looted from other places, which are showed in the museum. So which countries do they belong to? However, In my opinion, museums don’t have to return the antiquities to the original

The relationships between Native Americans and Archeologist has been difficult to say the least. In the past archeologists have never been seen in a positive light by Native Americans. The relationship between us has improved with the passing of NAGPRA. However, there are a lot if things that need to be done to make a permeant change. The way to change the relationship between us and them is a simple idea but a difficult undertaking. First we need to make all the laws that involve native American antiquity have more effect. This laws, if broken, should have a real punishment to the people that broke them. If we can show Native American that we are trying to make a change at the governmental level that could translate to a change in community relationships. Additionally, there needs to be more community involvement, whether that is inviting native people work on sites, or having more indigenous archeologist. Overall if we want to continue to learn about the past, archeologists must make a change for the future.

The fascination with Native Americans has been a constant with outsiders since explorers first “discovered” the New World. The biggest surge in this fascination came in the mid-19th century when the Indian Wars were starting to come to an end and the belief that Native Americans were disappearing, walking into the sunset never to be seen again. This led to an increase in the collecting of anything Native American, from artifacts to stories to portraits. The inevitable outcome of this was that Native Americans, who were never considered very highly to begin with, where now moved into a category of scientific interest to be study. This scientific interest in Native Americans is what many museums and other institutions based their collections and exhibits on and is one of the issues that many Native Americans have with how both their people and their culture were, and to some extent still are, represented in these places.

“Last Rights for Indian Dead” by Suzan Shown Harjo is an essay written that describes the desecration of Native American artifacts and remains and the call for action to put an end it. Harjo touches on the effects that the harboring and selling of these items causes. She speaks about the universities and the museums and their role in the problem; housing thousands of remains. One museum she speaks of houses over 19,000 remains. She also describes the desecration brought on by thieves digging up burial sites and taking what is not theirs.

Archaeologists can’t just possess any Native American material on their own for research purposes without the consultation of the Native American tribes. To the Native Americans, the past is connected to present. Rebecca Tsosie, a law professor from the Arizona State University mentioned that “The past is very real to contemporary Indian people ans is preserved in oral histories and ongoing ceremonial practices and beliefs.”(66). The native people feel that they’re obligated to take care of their past, they have to honor their ancestors no matter how long ago they have passed away. They believe that they should have the right to stop any behaviors that might desecrate their ancestors. It is very understandable that one might not appreciate someone digging up their grandparents and perform research without permission. Especially to people who practices a religion, this action may be interpreted as the archaeologists trying to disturb the spirits of their ancestors. Not only the remains and objects are important to the Natives, but also their land. Land was considered to be a gift given from the Creator. Just like the ancestral remains the descendants are responsible for their sacred land. It is believed that “The land is complete with sacred teachings, marked by tribal history, and places of interrelations to the powerful beings of the nature-spirit world.” (Champagne). The Native Americans do not have the need to know the truth, all they care is to ensure spiritual peace to their ancestors and to pass on the legacy of their own

Within this passage, Mann explains how the loss of Native America to the havoc of European arrival robbed the world of numerous advanced societies, who had not only developed the land itself, but also had explored the fields of politics, literature, religion, and science. Furthermore, in order for the Native Americans to nurture such advanced ideas, they also must of have settled in the Americas thousands of years prior to originally believed. Thus, the thesis of the book is that the societies that existed in times before European integration were great in number, early in arrival, and sophisticated in

The repatriation process set up by NAGPRRA requires federal agencies and museums to identify items in their possession that are subject to the law and make inventories and summaries of them, they then must consult with lineal descendants and Indian tribes regarding the identification and cultural affiliation of the items, finally the agencies and museums must send notices to the appropriate group describing the lineal descendancy or culture affiliation and stating that the item may be repatriated. The law provides federal grants to assist with the process of documentation and repatriation of the items. NAGPRA also sets up a review committee to monitor and resolve disputes consisting of three Native American nominees, three nominees from scientific organizations or museums, and one mutually approved nomination. In addition, there are steps provided to follow for unclaimed items, unidentifiable items, intentional and inadvertent discoveries on both federal and tribal land. Penalties for noncompliance and illegal trafficking are also set up through the law. NAGPRA does not prohibit all scientific study or mandate the repatriation of the human remains and other cultural items subject to its coverage. What the law does do is provide

George Gustav Heye Center - The Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian is a fascinating building at the Bowling Green area of Lower Manhattan. It’s close to Battery Park that displays an elegant view of the water. You can see ferries floating by headed towards Staten Island, since South Ferry Terminal is nearby. It allows you to appreciate the hidden gems of the city located in the outskirts Manhattan. One of those very treasures is the museum mentioned previously.

NAGPRA promises Native groups that remains would be returned to them if the remains were associated with their group, however Kennewick man does not necessarily “belong” to any specific group at this point in time. There are two perspectives to this dilemma: the Native perspective valuing the sacredness of the remains, and the scientific perspective valuing the eagerness to study the remains (Lee, 2008). Stories written by Donald Sampson and Rechanda Lee give insight on the Native perspective arguing that science is degrading Native American identity and disrespecting the culture and religion (Lee, 2008). They do not like that the graves of their ancestors are disturbed and dissected to be studied (Sampson, 2008). Traditional histories are important to Native American communities as it provides identity and lineage linked to their respected communities. Natives feel that a group of scientists should not be telling them what their history is as they have faith in what is passed down to them orally (Lee, 2008). Many Natives feel as if scientists need to show respect and let the Native communities be heard. (Lee, 2008). Scientists, however, are addressing Principle No.2 of the Principles of Archaeological Ethics as identifying the remains and associating them to a certain group determines who the remains actually belong to. Both Lee and Sampson argue that using the cranial morphology of Kennewick man to determine his race is the result of irrationality and imagination. Both of the passages that they wrote claim to be addressing the scientific aspect of Kennewick man, however they seem to be writing with a strong emotional language rather than scientific. In Sampson’s case, for example, he seems to be personally attacking the scientists involved with Kennewick man rather than the scientific evidence provided. The only scientific evidence that was addressed in these two

To start off, a Natural History Museum is usually a place where the public can visit to obtain knowledge on the history of the earth and its inhabitants. Much about people’s culture and customs is found in a Natural History museum, especially people that have made a difference or played a role in history that we learn today. Therefore, the Indigenous peoples are represented in these precise museums. The indigenous people have various amount of customs that are even used today, however, the fact that many of their descriptions are led by the word “histor” or “ancient” almost makes the guests at museums believe that these indigenous people are no longer alive, and that is incorrect. The key objective for a Natural History museum is to simply help connect the understanding of human beings, connections based on culture, communities, to the earth and to each other. Precisely, The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles does not fully represent in depth the qualities that made the indigenous people so innovative, intelligent, and powerful; Therefore, the importance of the indigenous people is almost overshadowed by everything else that is presented at the museum. Overall, the indigenous people are represented here because of their

One of the curators involved claimed that the intention of the exhibition was to “acknowledge Canada’s colonial past by examining these cultural artefacts and the processes by which they had been collected. Also to show off that White Canada had a somewhat less than perfect understanding of the richness of complex African societies.” Yet, regardless of the intent, the execution of the exhibit failed, miserably. The ROM began to face what is to this day, one of the greatest controversies they’ve had to face.

in British Columbia and the Chicago’s World’s Fair”, explains how the Canadian colonialism’s selfishness affected the Kwakwakawakw’s life. The white’s expectation of the Aboriginal to be authentic in ‘their way’, not in the Aboriginal’s way prevented the Kwakwakawakw from inventing their own future; the white categorized the Aboriginal people with their own definition of Indian-ness and authenticity. According to the article, only the ‘vanishing Indians’ have the Aboriginal rights; however, the white’s invasion and frequent interference forced the Aboriginals to be modernized. The white’s demand for tradition to the Indians who will naturally be modernized