Museum returns artifacts to Ojibwe
REPATRIATION: A 1990 federal law lets the Bois Forte Band get back its items from the American Museum of Natural History.
MINNEAPOLIS - Three birch bark rolls and six other sacred Ojibwe artifacts have been returned to the Bois Forte Band of Chippewa in Nett Lake, as the federal government steps up efforts to repatriate newly claimed cultural items from museums.
With chants and a pipe ceremony, tribal elders reclaimed the objects from the American Museum of Natural History in New York last week.
"They should be looked at like they were prisoners in those buildings," said Phyllis Boshey, 68, a former tribal council member and follower of Midewiwin, a secret Ojibwe medicine society.
By last count, more than 31,000 human remains and 724,000 artifacts have been returned to Indian tribes by 1,156 U.S. institutions, including the Minnesota Historical Society, the Science Museum in St. Paul and the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.
"It's the right thing to do," said Joseph Horse Capture, a curator at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.
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Returning the items has been difficult, partly because of too much bureaucracy, too little money, and religious and cultural issues that make it hard for tribal members to even mention their sacred customs.
The items returned to the Bois Forte band are significant to the practice of Midewiwin, a religion once practiced widely in Minnesota.
"We've lost a lot of our culture. A lot was taken from us," said Boshey, who learned Midewiwin from her parents. "These objects are like spirits. They should not be locked up."
The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, passed by Congress in 1990, is allowing for the return of the objects. Pressure has grown from tribes eager to reclaim some of the estimated 200,000 human remains in museums and federal agencies.
"People started realizing that people's ancestors were being kept in boxes in museums all over the country," said Vicky Raske, the museum project coordinator for northern Minnesota's Grand Portage Band of Chippewa Indians. Her tribe has reclaimed nearly a dozen artifacts from the Minnesota Historical Society.
At the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Horse Capture returned a ceramic vessel containing cremated human remains last year to an American Indian tribe in Arizona. The vessel had been excavated sometime before 1942 and donated to the Walker Art Gallery, which later donated it to the Arts Institute.
"Some of these objects, not all, were taken in less than honorable ways," Horse Capture said. "I'm sure some were taken in honorable ways, but at a time when Indians didn't think these things were going to survive, and they wanted them to be somewhere. Now they're able to reclaim these objects and revive their traditions. This is how Indian people are going to survive."
The Bois Forte band has been working on getting its artifacts back for at least two years, and the effort was sped up this year by a $9,105 federal grant. The items include three inscribed birch bark rolls, two rattles, a beaded ceremonial bag, a fawn skin bag, food fungus and black dye.
The artifacts originally were acquired in a museum expedition led by William Jones, a noted anthropologist who studied Ojibwe language and culture.
On Wednesday, elders went to New York to perform a pipe ceremony at the museum, acknowledging the mystical power they believe dwells in all things, animate and inanimate.
"It's like they were sleeping for a long time," said Vernon Adams, a spiritual adviser. "The ceremony was to wake them up and let them know they're going home."
MINNEAPOLIS - Three birch bark rolls and six other sacred Ojibwe artifacts have been returned to the Bois Forte Band of Chippewa in Nett Lake, as the federal government steps up efforts to repatriate newly claimed cultural items from museums.
With chants and a pipe ceremony, tribal elders reclaimed the objects from the American Museum of Natural History in New York last week.
"They should be looked at like they were prisoners in those buildings," said Phyllis Boshey, 68, a former tribal council member and follower of Midewiwin, a secret Ojibwe medicine society.
By last count, more than 31,000 human remains and 724,000 artifacts have been returned to Indian tribes by 1,156 U.S. institutions, including the Minnesota Historical Society, the Science Museum in St. Paul and the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.
"It's the right thing to do," said Joseph Horse Capture, a curator at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.
Original Article or
Returning the items has been difficult, partly because of too much bureaucracy, too little money, and religious and cultural issues that make it hard for tribal members to even mention their sacred customs.
The items returned to the Bois Forte band are significant to the practice of Midewiwin, a religion once practiced widely in Minnesota.
"We've lost a lot of our culture. A lot was taken from us," said Boshey, who learned Midewiwin from her parents. "These objects are like spirits. They should not be locked up."
The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, passed by Congress in 1990, is allowing for the return of the objects. Pressure has grown from tribes eager to reclaim some of the estimated 200,000 human remains in museums and federal agencies.
"People started realizing that people's ancestors were being kept in boxes in museums all over the country," said Vicky Raske, the museum project coordinator for northern Minnesota's Grand Portage Band of Chippewa Indians. Her tribe has reclaimed nearly a dozen artifacts from the Minnesota Historical Society.
At the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Horse Capture returned a ceramic vessel containing cremated human remains last year to an American Indian tribe in Arizona. The vessel had been excavated sometime before 1942 and donated to the Walker Art Gallery, which later donated it to the Arts Institute.
"Some of these objects, not all, were taken in less than honorable ways," Horse Capture said. "I'm sure some were taken in honorable ways, but at a time when Indians didn't think these things were going to survive, and they wanted them to be somewhere. Now they're able to reclaim these objects and revive their traditions. This is how Indian people are going to survive."
The Bois Forte band has been working on getting its artifacts back for at least two years, and the effort was sped up this year by a $9,105 federal grant. The items include three inscribed birch bark rolls, two rattles, a beaded ceremonial bag, a fawn skin bag, food fungus and black dye.
The artifacts originally were acquired in a museum expedition led by William Jones, a noted anthropologist who studied Ojibwe language and culture.
On Wednesday, elders went to New York to perform a pipe ceremony at the museum, acknowledging the mystical power they believe dwells in all things, animate and inanimate.
"It's like they were sleeping for a long time," said Vernon Adams, a spiritual adviser. "The ceremony was to wake them up and let them know they're going home."