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More News from I notion Country
Page 8 Spilyay T ym oo January 25, 2012
More ancient remains going to tribes DOI releases Navajo
BERKELEY, California (AP)
— O n a b lu ff o v erloo k in g a
sweep o f Southern California
beach, scientists in 1976 u n
earthed what were among the
old est skeletal rem ains ever
found in the W estern H em i
sphere.
Researchers would come to
herald the bones — dating back
nearly 10,000 years > as a po
tential treasure trove for under
standing the earliest human his
tory o f the continental United
States. But a local tribal group
called the Kumeyaay N atio n
claimed that the bones, repre
senting at least two people, were
their ancestors and demanded
them back several years ago.
For decades, fights like this
over the provenance and treat
m en t o f hum an b ones have
played out across the U.S.
Yet new federal protections
could mean that the vast major
ity o f the remains o f an esti
m ated 160,000 Native Ameri
cans held by universities, muse
ums and federal governm ent
agencies, including those sought
by the Kumeyaay, may soon be
transferred to tribes.
A recent federal regulation
addresses what should happen
to any remains that cannot be
positively traced to the ancestors
o f modern-day tribes. Museums
and agencies are required to
notify tribes whose current or
ancestral lands harbored the re
mains, then the tribe is entitled
to have them back.
Prestigious institutions from
H arvard to the University o f
C alifornia, Berkeley have al
ready begun working through
storehouses o f remains uncov
ered by archeologists, highway
and building contractors and
others since the 19th century. A
few are surrendering bones to
N ative tribes, and others are
evaluating w hether to do so.
Tribes have hailed the rule,
saying it will help close a long
and painful chapter th at saw
native peoples’ bones stolen by
grave robbers, boxed up in dusty
storerooms and disrespected by
researchers.
“D arn it, these are people,”
said Louis Guassac, a member
o f the Kumeyaay Cultural Re
patriatio n C om m ittee. “This
isn’t stuff. You don’t do this to
people. I don’t care how long
they’ve been there. You respect
them.”
The Native American Graves
Protection and Repatriation Act
o f 1990 provided for the return
o f remains connected to m od
ern-day tribes. B ut it was n ot
until 2010 that a rule on the dis
position o f so-called culturally
unidentifiable remains was final
ized by the D epartm ent o f the
Interior. Until then, more than
650 universities and other insti
tutions had no clear guidance
about how to return those re
mains, which account for the
bones o f about 116,000 people
in their collections. That rule is
still playing out, sometimes frac-
tiously.
Universities find themselves
tugged one way by the law’s
m andates, another by faculty
research needs. Some anthro
pologists say more remains will
becom e o ff limits, imperiling
study o f the diets, health, mi
grations and o th er habits o f
ancient peoples without guaran
teeing that the remains will wind
up with their true descendants.
In recent months, Harvard’s
Peabody Museum has received
requests for about 500 remains
and hired additional staff as they
respond to the 2010 rule, said
Patricia Capone, the museum’s
repatriation coordinator.
At the University o f Michi
gan, officials have decided to
transfer the bulk o f their 1,580
culturally unaffiliated remains to
13 Native American tribes who
want them. In the meantim e,
they have been p ut Off limits to
researchers. “T he law is very
clear th at they will be trans1-
ferred,” said school spokesman
Rick Fitzgerald.
At UC-Berkeley, more than
6,000 o f the roughly 10,000
remains that were deemed cul
turally unidentifiable are n o w
subject to potential transfer to
trib es. A n d th e P h o e b e A.
H earst M useum o f A rchaeol
ogy here has added four new
staff m em bers to help match
remains to tribes if possible and
notify tribes whose lands held
the remains.
The small, eclectic museum
recently celebrated the 100th
an n iv ersary o f a re c o rd in g
made by Ishi -* the last surviv-
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A . t UC-Berkeley, more
6,000 o f the roughly
10,000 remains th a t were
than
deemed culturally unidenti
fia b le are now subject to
p o te n tia l transfer to tribes.
ing m em ber o f the Yahi tribe
w ho emerged from hiding in
N o rth ern California in 1911.
The museum displays artifacts
su ch as Porno b ask ets, an
Achumawi rabbit-skin blanket
and arrowheads Ishi made out
o f obsidian and glass — but not
the remains o f native peoples.
T he collection o f bones —
one o f the country’s larg est^ is
in storage. Officials declined to
show them to The Associated
Press during a recent campus
visit on grounds that that could
be offensive to tribes.
The university currently has
four pending requests for re
mains. And Museum D irector
M ari Lyn S alvador said th e
regulation change has caused
concern among researchers.
“T here are very im portant
opportunities to understand con
temporary medicine... informa
tion that could be very useful
to these (Native) communities
themselves in term s o f better
u n d e rsta n d in g d iab etes and
other illnesses,” she said.
The university presents such
information to tribes, she said,
but lets the tribes decide whether
to allow researchers to work with
the bones.
Tens o f thousands o f indi
vidual Native American remains
have been collected since the
mid-19th century. Some grave
sites were looted of excavated
to support scientific research,
including a study o f skulls pur
p o rtin g to show th a t N ative
Americans were inferior to Cau
casians, according to R obert
Bieder, an Indiana University
professor who has written about
the phenomenon.
The bones in dispute at UC
San Diego have long since been
out o f the ground. They were
excavated more than three de
cades ago from land around the
university chancellor’s house in
La Jolla by a professor from
coal plant study
another school. But a photo o f
the original discovery shows the
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) 9
and 16 percent, according to the
outlines o f two skeletons with
Requiring a coal-fired pow er study. The cost burden o f addi
skulls, buried head to toe.
Since their discovery in 1976; plant-on the Navajo Nation to tional retrofits or a shutdown
they have been studied at the further regulate pollution would would fall most heavily on those
Smithsonian and carbon dated n o t force its retire m en t b u t who get water from the canals
at the U niversity o f O xford, would increase water rates for because unlike the plant's other
a cco rd in g
to
M arg aret agricultural users and American owners, which are utilities, the
Schoeninger, a professor in the Indian tribes by up to 16 per U.S. Bureau o f Reclamation has
Departm ent o f Anthropology at cent, according to a recent study. no way to recover those costs,
The U.S. Environmental Pro the study found.
UCSD and the university's rep
Reclamation and the Central
resentative on Indian burial is tection Agency has been consid
ering how to lower nitrogen ox A rizona W ater C onservation
sues.
When the Kumeyaay Nation ide emissions from the Navajo District rely on the plant for 92
S a dozen native bands with res Generating Station near Page. percent o f electricity needed for
ervations in San Diego County T he pow er plant already has the canals, while other owners
— first demanded the remains, low-nitrogen oxide burners, but o f the plant rely on it for be
the university rejected its claim the ERA. could mandate that the tween 9 percent and 26 percent
that they were the tribe's ances owners install more expensive o f their electric supply.;
The Interior Departm ent has
technology.
tors.
The federal government cre asked the EPA to hold off on a
R esearch ers have said
Kumeyaay rem ains w ere cre ated the 2,250-megawatt plant final decision for pollution con
mated early in the tribe’s history, to ensure a low-cost water sup trols under a rule meant to re
not buried. They have also ques ply for the C entral A rizona duce visibility in pristine areas
tioned whether the remains are Project, which delivers the wa like the Grand Canyon while it
even N ative Arherican, given ter through a series o f canals to analyzed the impacts o f retro
their age, although the univer 80 percent o f the state's popu fitting the plant; a shutdown due
sity has concluded that they are. lation. It also ensures that water to the cost o f retrofits, or no
“ In te rm s o f w h at the rights settlements with tribes are action.
The study also looks at the
Kumeyaay have p u t forward, met. !
A significant increase in the cost o f compliance with EPA
the only thing j ’ve heard is their
belief, their deep tie to the land cost o f pow er from the plant rules, the impact to the Navajo
and folklore,” Schoeninger said. w ould affect settlements with and H opi tribes, the impact on
“We need empirical evidence.” ’ some tribes and could bump up energy production and the re
T ribal rep resen tativ es say water rates between 13 percent maining life o f the plant.
they have an oral history that
goes back thousands o f years
and connects them to the re
mains.
In light o f the recent rule,
university officials did a réévalu
ation, concluding that the skel
eto n s
cam e
fro m
the
K um eyaay’s an c e stra l lands
while still maintaining they were
n ot the Kumeyaay's direct an
cestors.
In a filing in December, the
university said it would turn the
remains over to the Kumeyaay
although it gave o th er tribal
groups until Jan. 4 to come for
w ard
and
d isp u te
the —
Kumeyaay’s claim.
Kumeyaay repatriation offi
cials say they will accept the re
mains.
“I t’s pleasing to know that
these are going to finally be re
turned and properly taken care
of,” Guassac said. “They are go
ing to be getting the respectful
treatm ent they deserve.”
MissWarm Springs 2012 Chloee Suppah is congratulated
One option, he said, is that
by family and friends, and previous Miss Warm Springs.
the remains will be reburied.
Judge reflects on Wounded Knee trials
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) Aj It’s
been more than 37 years since
the federal trials o f protesters
who took over the W ounded
K nee massacre site in South
D ak o ta, an d th e N eb rask a-
based federal judge who presided
remembers his efforts to respect
the Native Americans and their
traditions.
U.S. D istrict Judge Warren
Urbom spoke this m onth to stu
dents involved in the N ative
Sovereignty Y outh Project, a
yearlong leadership project or
ganized by the Nebraska Com
mission on Indian Affairs with
funding from the U.S. D epart
m en t o f H ealth and H um an
Services.
Nearly a dozen students from
each o f N e b ra sk a ’s trib e s—
O m ah a, P b n ca, S an tee and
W innebagd—have been in tro
duced to university professors,
politicians, attorneys, state sena
tors and football coaches.
U rb o m talked to the stu
dents about the 1890 massa
cre o f d o z e n s o f N a tiv e
A m e ric a n s by U.S. cav alry
troops and the 1973 standoff
at the site betw een American
In d ian M ovem ent p ro testers
and federal officials.
The protesters occupied the
village o f Wounded Knee on the
Pine Ridge Indian Reservation
in South Dakota and held it for
71 days. O ne FB I agent was
paralyzed and two activists were
killed during the siege. The tri
als o f about 150 protesters be
gan in 1974 a fte r th e siege
ended, and they were consoli
dated under Urbom.
• U rbom said he tried to re
spect the activists, even allow
ing many o f them to be sworn
in using a medicine pipe rather
than a Bible.
H e ignored a w arning that
accom m odating the activists’
wishes would lead to chaos in
the courtroom.
“Nothing they did signaled to
m e th a t they w ere th e re to
cause trouble,” U rbom told the
students. “T hey didn’t cause
trouble.”
Sòme witnesses were allowed
to testify in the Lakota language,
and Urbom let some tribal lead
ers sit in the jury box.
The judge dismissed charges
against about 100 o f the activ-
ists. T here wasn’t enough evi
dence against them, he said.
O f th e re m a in d e r, he
found six guilty. T he 8th U.S.
Circuit C ourt o f Appeals over
turned four o f those convic
tions, citing insufficient evi
dence.
Convictions against two for
assaulting a federal officer and
interfering with a federal officer
were upheld. Both people got
probation.
Cherish Mallory, a 16-year-
old from Winnebago, said she
was impressed by U rbom ’s ac
com m odation o f the activists’
cultural requests.
“He was understanding about
the traditions,” Cherish said. “It’s
just interesting.”
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ND couple pleads guilty to tribal embezzlement
F A R G O , N .D . (AP) _ A
N o rth D a k o ta co u p le has
pleaded guilty to stealing from a
Spirit Lake tribal program.
The U.S. attorney's office says
67-year-old William Kazena and
66-year-old M artina K azena
pleaded guilty to conspiracy to
embezzle from an Indian tribal
organization, and aiding and
abetting.
A u th o ritie s say M artin a
Kazena, as director o f the Spirit
Lake Vocational Rehabilitation
Program, illegally approved pro
gram benefits to William Kazena
and others.
Each charge carries a maxi-
m um penalty o f five years in
prison.
Five other people charged in
the case are scheduled for trial
March 13.
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