Showing posts with label nagpra. Show all posts
Showing posts with label nagpra. Show all posts

Sunday, September 28, 2008

Indian Affairs leaders support NAGPRA review

Indian Affairs leaders support NAGPRA review
Senators concerned about federal agency compliance
By Rob Capriccioso

Story Published: Sep 26, 2008

Story Updated: Sep 26, 2008

WASHINGTON – Senate Committee on Indian Affairs leaders support a federal investigation aimed at strengthening the implementation of a top cultural preservation law involving tribes.

Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., plans to soon call for a report and study by the U.S. Government Accountability Office to explore federal government compliance and enforcement of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, is set to join Dorgan in his call for a GAO study, according to her staff. She serves as the committee’s vice chairwoman.

NAGPRA, a federal law enacted in 1990, is aimed at protecting American Indian remains and funerary objects and strives to reunite them with their families and homelands.

“The GAO report should examine whether or not the NAGPRA process has been accountable to tribes, as mandated by law,” Justin Kitsch, communications director for Dorgan, told Indian Country Today. The GAO is Congress’ official audit, evaluation and investigative arm.

Asked on Sept. 24 when Dorgan would request the report, Kitsch replied, “In the next week or so.”

The focus on GAO oversight comes largely in response to an August report released by the National Association of Tribal Historic Preservation Officers and the Makah Nation of Washington.

The report indicated that the National Park Service has used more than $3 million in tribal grants for purposes not covered by NAGPRA. The Park Service oversees federal administration of the law. It also found that several federal agencies, including the Park Service itself, have withdrawn public notices that tie held remains and objects to contemporary Natives.

Both before and after the report, tribal leaders have raised concerns about how NAGPRA monies are being spent. And some have said they are concerned that many agencies have withdrawn draft notices – as requested to do so by the national NAGPRA program office – which has resulted in Indian remains and artifacts being left in storage for more than a dozen years and counting.

Sherry Hutt, the national NAGPRA program manager, told ICT in August that she did not believe the report would lead to congressional investigations of NAGPRA management because “there’s no new information in there that brings something to light that hasn’t already been dealt with.”

In a follow-up interview, Hutt said that a GAO audit “could allow the program to step into the actual collections of a federal agency or museum” in a way that the national NAGPRA program office is not able to do under its current statutory authority.

For instance, the national office accepts inventories of remains and artifacts “on face value,” she said, but the GAO would be able to further audit these inventories in an on-the-ground manner.

Another question asked by some Natives that could be answered by a GAO study might focus on why so many ancestors who have been repatriated have not been in possession of clothing or burial objects.

“We just don’t have the authority, structure and statute to do that kind of investigation,” she said.

“The type of work that would be done under a GAO study is different than what we can do in the program. The information gained from such a study would probably be of great use to us in the program.”

There has already been much congressional oversight involving NAGPRA, especially from the late 1990s through 2003; but since then, the legislative branch has done rather little to explore and shape the program’s operations.

A series of Senate Indian Affairs hearings during that earlier timeframe resulted in a request for the Department of the Interior, which oversees the Park Service, to make changes.

Part of the changes included hiring Hutt, who has served as the program’s manager since 2004. Her main task was to make the program responsive to concerns of the Indian Affairs committee.

Over the four years since she was hired, she said the program has provided strong leadership in the administration of the law.

Despite the changes, tribal historic preservation officers and members of the seven-member review committee of NAGPRA have long expressed support for a GAO report focused on ways to improve the program’s overall efficacy.

Colin Kippen, a Native Hawaiian who serves on the review committee, said in August he is hopeful that the GAO could use the NATHPO/Makah study as a floor to begin investigations.

He said he and other members of the committee are “very open” to “increasing the accountability and transparency” of the law’s implementation.

http://www.indiancountrytoday.com:80/living/29791944.html

Saturday, June 14, 2008

Sacred Site Digs Rile Native Americans in No. Cal.

Sacred Site Digs Rile Native Americans in No. Cal.

chicoSol, News Feature, Jennifer MacDonald, Posted: Jun 13, 2008

OROVILLE, Calif. – The hike to the archeological dig site is long, dusty and steep. Scaling down the embankment on this winter afternoon, a dozen scientists are hard at work hundreds of feet below, digging at what was once a thriving Native American village. The site is usually under the water of Lake Oroville, but the water level drops at this time of year, helping to uncover artifacts from a civilization lost long ago.

Digs like this one are part of the federal re-licensing process for the Oroville Dam, a key part of the state's water system.

The Department of Water Resources's 1957 license to operate the Oroville Dam expired last year. Now, the dam is operating on a temporary annual license. DWR wants to re-license the dam for another 50 years. But by law, the agency must assess the impact on sites within a quarter-mile radius of the project area.

The Oroville Dam is the single most important component of the California State Water Project that provides water to 25 million Californians and 750,000 acres of farmland. So the state has an interest in meeting the mandates of the law.

But the digs have caused a rift between the Konkow Maidu, the Native Americans who live in the Oroville area, and the DWR.

Many Maidu say they feel violated by the digging and collection of their ancestors' bones and belongings. They are resentful the artifacts and even human remains end up in the possession of government agencies and universities. And they say they want the sites left alone for spiritual reasons.

But under state and federal law, the DWR must assess the "cultural impact" of the dam. That means locating and taking inventory of thousands of Native American village sites as well as ceremonial and burial grounds.

The artifacts tell a story about the indigenous societies that thrived for thousands of years without pollution, paved streets or poverty, societies that existed without drug abuse, jails or guns.

For some Maidu and the scientists, discovering the world of the hunter-gatherer tribes is really a search for identity.

Lawana Watson, 44, belongs to the Enterprise Rancheria, and grew up in Oroville, but didn't connect with her culture until about 15 years ago. Since learning how her ancestors lived, Watson feels her life has a purpose.

"Identity is most important," Watson said. "It makes me think about what I can do to better my kids' and grandkids' lives, how to use our environment to teach our kids our culture."

But for many Maidu alive today, the search for answers has gone too far.

Art Angle is a tall, stout 67-year-old Konkow Maidu man who grew up in Enerprise, one of the towns flooded by Lake Oroville with the construction of the dam in the 1960s. Angle's grey and black hair is just long enough to slick back. He's dressed in cowboy boots and Wrangler jeans and a pack of Pall Malls is visible through his shirt pocket.

"They've dug us up; they've examined us; they've turned us inside out," Angle said. "They've run us through carbon dating, DNA… whatever they can do to figure out what we looked like; what we ate; and how we survived all these years without European influence."

Angle, who grew up in Enterprise, one of the towns that was destroyed and flooded by Oroville dam in the 1960s, has spent much of his life fighting for the cultural and political rights of Native Americans.

Angle led the fight to locate and bury the brain of "Ishi," the name given the man who was believed to be the last surviving member of the Yahi tribe after he emerged near Oroville in the early 1900s. The story of the recovery of Ishi's brain from the Smithsonian – documented by many writers – may be one of the most well-known and wrenching stories of repatriation.

Today, Angle is among the many Maidu who view the excavation of their ancestors' bones and belongings as a new form of discrimination against a people that has already suffered too much.

The fight to stop the digging has persisted since the archeological digs began in 2004 with the beginning of the federal re-licensing process for the Oroville Dam. More than 1,000 sites have been located within the project area, and another 600 sites are expected to be surveyed, said Janis Offermann, cultural resources manager for DWR.

Under the Native American Graves and Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), if crews uncover human remains, the digging must stop and the tribes must be notified.

The federal law also requires that all human remains and items associated with burial or sacred ceremonies be returned to tribes. No human remains have been returned to tribes in Oroville, although 138 bodies were dug up in the early 1960s.

Artifacts like arrowheads and stone tools found within the state-owned project area become the property of the state, Offermann said. The artifacts are shipped to California State University, Sacramento, for research.

This infuriates Maidu leaders like Gary Archuleta, chairman of Mooretown Rancheria that operates Gold Country Casino in Oroville. Artifacts should be returned to the tribes, Archuleta said, "not just carted off in a box to end up sitting somewhere."

DWR can't give control to Maidu because the sites are on state property, Offermann says. And DWR is legally bound to figure out which sites need protection. Sites deemed culturally or historically significant are placed on national or state registers of Historic Places.

DWR officials say their relationship with Maidu tribes has grown closer. Monthly meetings of the Maidu Advisory Council, a group that consists of members of different tribes in Oroville and DWR officials, allow them to voice concerns.

Still, some Maidu don't feel like their voices are heard.

"We voiced our opinion on a lot of those issues and one of those issues was don't go digging," Angle said. "Did it work? No. They're still digging."

http://news.newamericamedia.org:80/news/view_article.html?article_id=31a11c56cb645448741cc855665b0cb1



In peace & solidarity,
Tamra
www.NDNnews.com
www.protectsacredsites.org
www.protectbearbutte.com

PROTECT BEAR BUTTE!

"Providing news and information about Native American Issues & Causes"
"Helping to make a difference for our people in Indian Country, one day at a time. What will you do today to help make a difference?"

"Our sacred lands are all that remain keeping us connected to our place on Mother Earth, to our spirituality, our heritage and our lands; what’s left of them. If they take it all away, what will remain except a vague memory of a past so forgotten?"

Friday, June 6, 2008

New York Times writer misrepresents NAGPRA

New York Times writer misrepresents NAGPRA
Posted: June 06, 2008
by: Rob Capriccioso


Errors raise concerns among museum and federal officials

WASHINGTON - Museum and federal officials are taking Edward Rothstein, a longtime cultural critic and well-respected writer at The New York Times, to task. They say he made several egregious errors in his recent writings regarding the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act and Indian representations in museums.

In a column by Rothstein published May 27 in the newspaper, titled ''Antiquities, the World Is Your Homeland,'' in which he argues that the ''cultural property movement'' is ''illicit,'' the writer made the following assertion about NAGPRA:

''In the United States ... the 1990 Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act required every museum getting public funds to survey its collections; identify Indian remains and funerary, sacred and other objects; and consult with Indian tribes and 'repatriate' the artifacts if requested. Such objects may have been legitimately purchased a century ago from the tribes or have no issue clouding their provenance, but claims of ordinary property give way before claims of cultural property. The grievous sins of the past are now being repaid with a vengeance. And the risks of repatriation and the requirements of tribal consultation have led to promotional, uninformative and self-indulgent themes in exhibitions about American Indians.''

Sherry Hutt, the national NAGPRA program manager, said Rothstein's interpretation is wrong. She is well versed in the 1990 law, which created a legal process for federal agencies and institutions that receive federal funding to return American Indian human remains and cultural items to their respective tribes or lineal descendants.

''NAGPRA does provide a process to resolve long-standing claims of Native Americans to the human remains of their ancestors and to certain cultural items, but it expressly does not require a museum to give up something that was lawfully acquired in the first instance,'' Hutt said. ''The law indicates that if the item left the tribe with the voluntary consent of an individual or group that had the authority of alienation, then the museum can overcome a claim by asserting its right of possession.''

She also said Rothstein's misinterpretations did not end there. He went on to write:

''The idea of cultural property ... led to the Army Corps of Engineers' bulldozing an archaeological site in Washington state in 1998 that had yielded a roughly 9,200-year-old skeleton, known as Kennewick Man, the oldest ever found in North America. Without any evidence, local Indian tribes claimed the skeleton was their cultural property - the bones of an ancestor - and they successfully prevented a complete scientific examination. The bulldozing was apparently a new form of protection: philistinism triumphing in the name of enlightened ideas.''

She noted, ''As to the Army Corps bulldozing a site: The Army Corps spent $1.2 million on science on the remains and gave a permit for scientific excavation at the site to Dr. James Chatters, upon his request, all prior to covering the site. Scientists now control a copy of the skeleton for their indefinite examination.''

Her inference is that Rothstein is exaggerating his claims to perhaps make readers believe Indians were successful in stopping study on Kennewick Man altogether.

Patty Gerstenblith, a legal scholar at DePaul University specializing in cultural heritage law, noted that the NAGPRA statute is carefully crafted not to take away legitimate ownership rights, which does not always lead to favorable situations for tribes that want to recover artifacts.

''This is a very specialized area of the law,'' she said. ''And maybe Mr. Rothstein just didn't spend the time to understand it - although, obviously, I can't get inside his head.''

Gerstenblith further noted that members of the Sulzberger family, which owns The Times, sit on the board of trustees of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. ''They do generally come from a pro-collecting perspective,'' she said.

Rothstein told Indian Country Today that he's been traveling, reviewing other museums, so he didn't have time to offer a complete response; however, he said in an e-mail that if his summary of the NAGPRA law is incorrect, ''it should be corrected.'' Otherwise, he said, his ''essays should speak for themselves.''

Leaders with the National Museum of the American Indian have long questioned Rothstein's motives when he turns his pen to Native museums, especially those that involve collaborations with contemporary Indians. And they have long been angry about Rothstein's representations, which they believe have partially influenced the critiques of other journalists.

In a 2006 letter to The Times, former NMAI head Richard West said he was ''mystified by [Rothstein's] characterization of the National Museum of the American Indian. Objects from George Gustav Heye's [a famous Manhattan banker and artifact collector] unparalleled collection are displayed in the museum not only for their aesthetic quality, but also for their spiritual significance or everyday utility.''

Current NMAI director Kevin Gover said there's no way to know for sure why Rothstein continues to have a beef with the museum. ''I try to assume the best about him and his criticism,'' he said.

''At its open, it was important that the museum be a voice for the communities to speak through. We're quite unapologetic about that.''

But, he added, the museum has evolved over time, incorporating more of the scholarship of the sort critics like Rothstein have complained about. Still, he's adamant that the museum should never lose or diminish the strong voices behind the Indian communities it strives to portray.

''I don't know if Mr. Rothstein has been to the museum lately,'' Gover said, ''but he is more than welcome to visit.''
http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096417453

In peace & solidarity,
Tamra
www.NDNnews.com
www.protectsacredsites.org
www.protectbearbutte.com

PROTECT BEAR BUTTE!

"Providing news and information about Native American Issues & Causes"
"Helping to make a difference for our people in Indian Country, one day at a time. What will you do today to help make a difference?"

"Our sacred lands are all that remain keeping us connected to our place on Mother Earth, to our spirituality, our heritage and our lands; what’s left of them. If they take it all away, what will remain except a vague memory of a past so forgotten?"