[News] New database reveals where Native Americans human remains are being held

Thu Jan 12 15:39:30 EST 2023

bsnorrell.blogspot.com
<https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2023/01/new-database-reveals-where-native.html>
New database reveals where Native Americans human remains are being held
January 12, 2023
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A depiction of one scene at Sand Creek by witness Howling Wolf
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howling_Wolf_(Cheyenne)> Cheyenne

*Native American human remains are being held by museums and universities.
Native Americans want to bring their ancestors home.*

*By Brenda Norrell*

*Censored News*

A new database reveals which museums and universities have human remains of
Native Americans. It shows which places have made those available for
return, and which ones have not.

The database by ProPublica shows those not returning remains to the Tohono
O'odham Nation including the University of Arizona Museum and Arizona State
Museum. The places that have not made remains available to Oglala Lakota in
Pine Ridge, South Dakota, include Harvard University and Milwaukee Public
Museum

“We never ceded or relinquished our dead. They were stolen,” James Riding
In, Pawnee and longtime professor at Arizona State University professor,
said of the unreturned remains.
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Lone Dog Winter Count, held at Smithsonian.

Now, Native American Nations struggle as museums and universities search
for loopholes, to the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation
Act, NAGPRA, which was created to protect the remains of nearly 600 Native
American Nations.

“In life, they were not respected. They were forced to march. Removed,”
said Danelle Gutierrez, the tribal historic preservation officer for the
Big Pine Paiute Tribe of the Owens Valley. “Even in death, they aren’t
respected.”

ProPublica journalists Mary Hudetz
<https://www.propublica.org/people/mary-hudetz> (Apsaalooke/Crow), Logan
Jaffe <https://www.propublica.org/people/logan-jaffe> and Ash Ngu
<https://www.propublica.org/people/ash-ngu> were interested in
investigating whether the promises of the Native American Graves Protection
and Repatriation Act, considered landmark human rights legislation, had
been fulfilled.

"It is a starting point for understanding the damage done by generations of
Americans who stole, collected and displayed the remains and possessions of
the continent’s Indigenous Peoples," said ProPublica who is publishing this
series in conjunction with NBC News.

Museums and universities have the remains of Cheyenne and Arapaho. The Sand
Creek Massacre in southeast Colorado was among the horrific massacres of
women and children by the U.S. Army. Now, Cheyenne and Arapaho want to
bring their ancestors home, but some institutions are using loopholes to
prevent the return of their ancestors. The image below shows where the
remains of Cheyenne and Arapaho were taken from.

*Cheyenne and Arapaho: The Sand Creek Massacre *

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On the Longest Walk northern route at Sand Creek Massacre site in 2008,
walkers remembered as they stood on sacred ground.

For the Cheyenne Arapaho on this journey, like Calvin Magpie, Jr., from
Oklahoma, it was a time of profound sorrow, remembering the innumerable
babies, children, women, men, and elderly who were shot in cold blood and
mutilated.

*Northern Cheyenne taken*

Northern Cheyenne remains were taken from Colorado, Nebraska, and elsewhere
and put in museums and universities. The horrific massacre of Cheyenne and
Arapaho women and children was at Sand Creek in Colorado, among the many
massacres carried out by the U.S. Army.

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"All of these institutions have used a loophole in the law that allows them
to keep Native Americans remains if they deem them as “culturally
unidentifiable,” meaning they can’t be culturally affiliated to a
modern-day federally recognized tribe. Tribal representatives have long
criticized NAGPRA for giving institutions the final say in these
decisions." -- ProPublica

*Oglala Lakota Unreturned Remains*

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*Navajo Nation: Where Dine' were taken from*

Universities, museums, and the Department of Interior took Dine' from these
places. Some places are not releasing them. ProPublica database shows Dine'
remains in the Natural History Museum in New York City, Field Museum in
Chicago, and elsewhere that are not being released. The largest number of
Native remains in the region were taken from San Juan County, New Mexico.
Some institutions have made these ancestors' remains available to Hopi,
Pueblos, Navajo, Ute, and Jicarilla Apache.

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*San Juan County, New Mexico: Who is not releasing them*

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*Tohono O'odham: University of Arizona Museum has remains it is not
returning*

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"An Interior Department spokesperson said it complies with its legal
obligations and that its bureaus (such as the Bureau of Indian Affairs and
Bureau of Land Management) are not required to begin the repatriation of
“culturally unidentifiable human remains” unless a tribe or Native Hawaiian
organization makes a formal request." -- ProPublica

*The theft and desecration continues*

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*https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-07-31/indigenous-tribal-repatriation-nagpra
<https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-07-31/indigenous-tribal-repatriation-nagpra>*

*ProPublic said:*

*In 1990, Congress passed a law recognizing the unequal treatment of Native
American remains and set up a process for tribes to request their return
from museums and other institutions that had them. The law, known as the
Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act or NAGPRA, sought to
address this human rights issue by giving Indigenous peoples a way to
reclaim their dead.*

*But 33 years after the law’s passage, at least half of the remains of more
than 210,000 Native Americans have yet to be returned. Tribes have
struggled to reclaim them in part because of a lack of federal funding for
repatriation and because institutions face little to no consequences for
violating the law or dragging their feet.*

*This database allows you to search for information on the roughly 600
federally funded institutions that reported having such remains to the
Department of the Interior. While the data is self-reported, it is a
starting point for understanding the damage done by generations of
Americans who stole, collected and displayed the remains and possessions of
the continent’s Indigenous peoples — and the work done by tribes and
institutions to repatriate those Native ancestors since.*

*Read more and search database:*

*Article at ProPublica*

Why ProPublica investigated whether the human rights legislation of NAGPRA
was fulfilled

Search database:
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