ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESOURCES PROTECTION ACT Update effective 01/12/24

[dognose]

Field Museum Covers Some Native Displays as New Rules Take Effect ​

Jan. 11, 2024
The Chicago institution’s move is in response to updated federal regulations that require museums to consult with tribes before exhibiting Native American cultural items.

The Field Museum in Chicago has covered up several display cases that feature Native American cultural items in response to new federal regulations that require museums to obtain consent from tribes before exhibiting objects connected to their heritage.

Museums across the country have been preparing for the new regulations, which go into effect on Friday, with officials consulting lawyers as curators scramble to read through rules that will influence staffing and budgets for years to come.

The federal government overhauled rules that were established in the 1990s, hoping to accelerate the repatriation of Native American remains and cultural patrimony — a process that tribal officials and repatriation advocates have long criticized for moving too slowly.

The Field Museum’s decision relates to a provision that requires institutions to “obtain free, prior and informed consent” from tribes before exhibiting cultural items or human remains, or allowing research of them. Museums have had to decide whether to leave Native objects on display and risk violating the new rules, or to remove the objects while engaging in what might be a lengthy process of requesting tribal consent.

The decision by the Field Museum, which was announced this week on its website, applies to display cases in its halls of the ancient Americas, focused on civilizations in the Western Hemisphere spanning 13,000 years, and in a hall about 10 Native nations in the Pacific Northwest.

“Pending consultation with the represented communities, we have covered all cases that we believe contain cultural items that could be subject to these regulations,” said the museum, which noted it does not display human remains.

It was not immediately clear which items had been obscured and which tribes the museum was planning on consulting. Museum representatives did not immediately respond to requests for further information.

Many institutions that display Native American cultural items, including the American Museum of Natural History in New York and the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard University, have not announced how their exhibitions will be affected.

“It’s as clear as day,” said Shannon O’Loughlin, chief executive for the Association on American Indian Affairs, a nonprofit that assists Native nations and Indigenous people with repatriation. “They need to proactively fix it if they are out of compliance.”

Part of the newfound urgency around repatriation has been fueled by a broader effort at museums and universities to right historical wrongs. Holdings of Native American remains are often linked to grave robbing, archaeological excavation and development on burial grounds.

Another driver has been the Biden administration, which has been trying to find ways to accelerate the repatriation process since 2021. The remains of more than 96,000 Native American individuals continue to be held in institutions that include large museums and tiny local historical societies.

The new regulations end some practices that repatriation advocates said were responsible for delaying returns. Institutions can no longer label remains as “culturally unidentifiable,” a category that made it more difficult for tribes to make claims on those holdings.

Created in consultation with dozens of federally recognized Native American tribes, the new rules also seek to address longstanding concerns about how much consideration tribes are paid regarding exhibitions and research.

“If people were treating that relationship with respect in the first place, there probably wouldn’t be a need for the rule,” said Bryan Newland, the assistant secretary for Indian affairs and a former tribal president of the Bay Mills Indian Community.

Some leaders in the museum and archaeology worlds have argued that the new rules overstep and that museums should maintain autonomy in managing their collections. If a museum is accused of not following the federal regulations, which are administered by the Interior Department, the government can issue a fine.

The Field Museum, which was founded in 1894 after the World’s Columbian Exposition as a repository for items displayed at the fair, is among the museums that have renewed their commitments to repatriation in recent years. It has one of the largest collections of Native American remains, with holdings that represent more than 1,200 individuals, according to federal government data published in the fall.

SOURCE
NYTIMES

Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act UPDATE FEDERAL REGISTER

See related post

The Remains of Thousands of Native Americans Were Returned to Tribes This Year​

 

[russau]

And who's to say that these "self appointed Artifact Police" aren't watching / monitoring this site for potential people to go out and arrest or confiscate their collection ? And again , who's to say what they can or can't do / or take ! Some point's are so darn good that some of the experts can't tell if they are Artifacts or something that this guy just made and made it look to be a real artifact ? I've also read about guy's that went out getting "stuff" and getting arrested for having these items ! As it turns out the people that called the police were people from a local University and they were checked out also and it turns out that they had items in their homes that they shouldn't of had and they lost all of it ! and the people that originally were the targets , had donated a bunch of items to all the colleges for a long time ! So there's something to also chew on !

 

[Tnmountains]

I have seen game wardens walking the shores looking for artifacts as I was fishing Lol !








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[magua]

The Pennsylvania museum closed their NA exhibit entirely due to the laws. If you donated items to them in years past, and I know many who have…know that they are now removed, hidden, tucked away from site.

Now that’s a crime.

 

[Tnmountains]

@magua

Never ever donate anything to a museum. Good chance they have 50 just like it stored in the basement.

I need to go back and read this thread again. So there is a new Federal law requiring the return of remains of indigenous people from museums? Is that right? Who is it that gets them...That is not even possible because no group can claim these remains or most of them from a specific tribe. We named the tribes after that it is just people buried with in an Archeological context of Mississippian.Woodland and archaic plus paleo. What tribe where those Woodland remains by the way. Be careful you might be doing cultural appropriation if you get it wrong.

 

[magua]

@magua

Never ever donate anything to a museum. Good chance they have 50 just like it stored in the basement.

I need to go back and read this thread again. So there is a new Federal law requiring the return of remains of indigenous people from museums? Is that right? Who is it that gets them...That is not even possible because no group can claim these remains or most of them from a specific tribe. We named the tribes after that it is just people buried with in an Archeological context of Mississippian.Woodland and archaic plus paleo. What tribe where those Woodland remains by the way. Be careful you might be doing cultural appropriation if you get it wrong.

You are very correct in a great deal of what you say.

They want anything that is sacred, holy, or considered closely associated with burial returned. Unfortunately, some people translated that to every single thing possible being returned. It would be like me saying my grandfather’s shovel that he used in the coal mines , should be considered a relic for his ethnicity. An ax or adze was a tool, just like the shovel. But some people will declare that ax/adze should be taken off display, or returned to a tribe.

Unfortunately, there’s no perfect science and different states, and groups are translating it into her ways. There’s no consistency.

 

[magua]

You are very correct in a great deal of what you say.

They want anything that is sacred, holy, or considered closely associated with burial returned. Unfortunately, some people translated that to every single thing possible being returned. It would be like me saying my grandfather’s shovel that he used in the coal mines , should be considered a relic for his ethnicity. An ax or adze was a tool, just like the shovel. But some people will declare that ax/adze should be taken off display, or returned to a tribe.

Unfortunately, there’s no perfect science and different states, and groups are translating it into her ways. There’s no consistency.

Sent too soon

As you said, we’ve given many of these groups names for archaeological purposes. Because most of these groups are too old, Paleo and archaic, and therefore we do not know their original tribal names. So who accepts responsibility for those items? The existing tribes nowadays have nothing to do with the ancestry of those people.

Sometimes, the tribes will say that they definitely want the items returned. But then they make no effort to arrange for a location for it to be returned, or even for the burials. I know for a fact that several burials from Pennsylvania, ended up buried in a private Religious organizations Park in Ohio . Because they accepted the responsibility for the tribes burials under an agreement with the tribe. But there is a situation where a religious organization took it upon themselves to finance and provide a place for the remains.

And there’s other times that the only remaining tribe in that area, was the one who was responsible for annihilating and assimilating the other tribes and cultures into their own through conquest. Would the ancestors of the people who were assimilated really want associated? That’s what we’re doing in some circumstances.

It’s a mess.

 

[ToddsPoint]

“This land is sacred”. How many times have you heard that from Indians? How do you deal with people that claim everything is sacred? 🤷🏼

 

[Tnmountains]

The whole thing is a very long read. It has nothing to do with ARPA. It is about returning remains and funeral gifts from Gov land. I get that.
But if you read the many many surveys they did they even surveyed high school students,lol. Anyways the museums admitted they have no idea what they have and are fighting it. This has been going on for several years and does not affect the private land hunters. Was funny that they even exempted people on Social security. It is a mess for the tribes and everyone involved.

 

[GirlWithWolf]

“This land is sacred”. How many times have you heard that from Indians? How do you deal with people that claim everything is sacred? 🤷🏼

Respect is the best place to start. Tribes here didn’t cross the border into Europe and start demanding people believe as we do. The border crossed us.

But it is a fact it is a huge pain in the ass dealing with tribes and the government only makes things worse, as usual. Things seemed bad one direction so they tried to bring it back and the pendulum seems to have swung too far. My generation swears it will be different and better one day, but we’ll see. All the others have said the same thing.

To me it almost seems destined for failure to even try and a free for all might actually be better. Because how many things can be definitively identified to belong to a particular “modern” tribe? Our borders shifted too. Then inside the tribes we have our own disagreements, even in our own families inside the tribes. I could tell an awesome story or two about that but this isn’t place to air family business.

 

[russau]

Everyone deserves respect until they show disrespect then the barn door is open !

 

[rginn]

You have to remember ToddsPoint that many NDNs consider everything sacred. I agree with some of that, in particular to burials, but I suppose the guy who lost that arrowhead didn't really attach any sacredness to it. The thing that ruined it for everyone, was there were money hungry people out digging up graves. I don't believe any of us on here would engage in that sort of activity. Because of the actions of a few, rules are made.

 

[ToddsPoint]

You have to remember ToddsPoint that many NDNs consider everything sacred.

Really? It seems many didn’t consider life sacred. They had no problem killing each other or Europeans. I guess you could call it “selective sacredness “.🤷🏼

 

[magua]

Really? It seems many didn’t consider life sacred. They had no problem killing each other or Europeans. I guess you could call it “selective sacredness “.🤷🏼

That's mankind. Overall, we kill, have killed, and continue to kill for thousands of years regardless of who or where we come from. Sad, but true.
I've had several NA friends who have made the statement that arrowheads held no significant spiritual value unless crafted and buried with a body but otherwise it is utility, a tool to live. I guess the analogy that a friend said to me once is really valid and makes complete sense. He basically said, Do you take your grandfathers shovel and hold it as sacred and religious valued object honoring your grandfather because he dug coal in the mines with it? No. it was a tool, implement of utility to live by. That's how many view the tools of their times.

When it comes down to it. I see the most smoke being created in this topic by people who are not even direct descendants or NA. It's people that seem to want to speak out as a representative but not asking the source for validation on whether or not it is even an issue.

 

[rginn]

I was more referring to material things of each particular group, ToddsPoint. Warfare with enemies and intruders was viewed differently.

 

[rginn]

The point I was trying to make, Magua. It didn't come across just right.

 

[magua]

The point I was trying to make, Magua. It didn't come across just right.

I got ya. It's all good.
People fail to look at the big picture. If you want to hand back the remains from...let's say from 500 bc to 500 ad...who gets the remains in some of these areas...some tribes annihilated and assimilated cultures that they fought with...do you really want the people that killed your ancestors off taking ownership? Not that it matters because none of those people are even left to give them too. And many tribes are not equipped to take ownership and reburial, etc. They made a big leap with the law before they even understood the problem, and especially if they would have looked to see if it was a problem.

 

[releventchair]

Never noted any one digging unauthorized in the cemeteries I go to to tidy up and leave stones atop headstones.
And I don't dig in Native sites that are obvious sites built for Native use.
So far that works out just fine.

 

[GirlWithWolf]

When it comes down to it. I see the most smoke being created in this topic by people who are not even direct descendants or NA. It's people that seem to want to speak out as a representative but not asking the source for validation on whether or not it is even an issue.

This is the truth. They want to be a representative and even explain to us what we should find offensive.

The world can use more empathy, but unless someone told them when they were 11 years old getting a Slurpee that they hope it hydrates them enough to make it back across the border where they came from, don’t even pretend to know anything about me or what is best for me.

 

[rginn]

In SWOK we've pretty much narrowed it down that the Plains Village Farmers of a thousand, fifteen hundred years ago were direct ancestors of the present day Wichitas. We don't know a whole lot about what took place in that part of the country before that, except for some Paleos who killed a mammoth in Domebo Canyon about 10,000 years ago then cleared out. Caddos, who were moved to that same area of the state believe they are direct descendants of the Spiro Mound people. (I was born in the former Wichita/Caddo reservation) So any burial type things are passed on to the Wichitas. They don't seem to attach much spirituality to any of the land formations, other than all the earth is sacred, etc. etc.

 

[southfork]

Consult with tribes? The only tribes that are known are historic. Who are they going to ask about displaying 13,000 yr old paleo artifacts? This is just one more extension of the woke BS going on now. How long will it be before they want to come in my house and confiscate my display sORRY BUT YOUR

Not long , careful



Not long, be careful watch ya post , we live in a real twilight zone nowadays

you need to read a little more before posting such b.s. Gunther projectile points go back from prehistoric and historic periods to A.D.800 and Rose Spring points are thought to be one of the first Arrow points in great Basin. Then Dart points head back there from onwards Paiute on my grandmother's side full blood. First Nations people on the other.