Page 8
Spilyay Tymoo, Warm Springs, Oregon
March 13, 2019
Ancestors: team returning from New Zealand
(Continued from page 1)
Some of the grave rob-
bers were in search of
funerary objects. And some
were looking for the remains
themselves, in order to sell or
otherwise add them to a mu-
seum collection.
The Yale Peabody Mu-
seum in Connecticut received
many Wasco remains, identi-
fiable by the shape of the
cranium. Ms. Kirk then ex-
plains:
At some point in the 1880s
the Peabody Museum appar-
ently exchanged some of its
Wasco remains and objects
with the Canterbury Museum
in New Zealand, in exchange
for Mâori remains and ob-
jects.
The looting, selling and
trading of Native American
remains was not unusual at
the time. On the contrary,
estimates at time of
NAGPRA were that half a
million Native American re-
mains were held by museums
in the U.S. alone.
More than 100,000—
along with a million funerary
objects—could not be asso-
ciated with any specific tribe
or tribes.
Under NAGPRA many
of those that could be identi-
fied have been returned for
repatriation to tribes, includ-
ing to the Confederated
Tribes of Warm Springs.
The remains from the Can-
terbury Museum will be the
first the tribes have received
from a museum in a foreign
country. Ms. Kirk details how
the repatriation came about:
“Back in 1996 an artist
friend was traveling in New
Zealand, and while there he
went to the Canterbury Mu-
seum,” becoming aware of
the Columbia River ancestral
remains.
“The tribe he first alerted
was the Umatilla, and they got
the ball rolling,” Roberta says.
“We heard about it and
wanted to be involved. And
we started a conversation
with the Canterbury Mu-
seum.”
Evidence at the museum
was that the remains were
from The Dalles area, and
could therefore be Wasco.
This belief was strengthened
by observing the distinctive
Courtesy Roberta Kirk
The Columbia River Tribes repatriation team: From Warm Springs are Tashina Eastman (back row third from left), Roberta Kirk (back row
second from right), and Rosie Johnson ( seated at the left). They are joined by members of the Yakama, Umatilla and Mâori.
Gofundme account, helping
cover some of the costs.
The team left for New
Zealand last Saturday, and
will return this week, with
the repatriation ceremony
set for this Saturday, March
16.
The Warm Springs Se-
niors program is taking sign-
ups for elders who wish to
attend the ceremony. The
Courtesy David Walker/Stuff
Canterbury Museum held a ceremony to return three
ancestral skulls of First Nations people on Monday.
shape of the craniums, in-
dicating a ‘flathead’ or
Wasco royalty lineage.
The tribes contacted the
Canterbury Museum to see
if they could ship the re-
mains back to the tribes.
The museum board, though,
said they would prefer a
more significant and formal
transfer ceremony, involving
the Mâori.
The U.S. National Parks
Service was not able to help
the tribes with travel ex-
penses—as it with cases un-
der NAGPRA—because the
Canterbury Museum is out-
side of the jurisdiction.
Instead, the tribal team
raised donations. The Con-
federated Tribes of Warm
Springs, the Credit Enter-
prise, Indian Head Casino,
Power
and
Water,
GeoVisions and Ventures
chipped in for the Warm
Springs team, which in-
cludes Roberta, Rosie
Johnson and Tashina
Eastman.
Co-workers and the
community helped. And
Roberta set up a
Courtesy David Walker/Stuff
Aaron Ashley from the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation was
‘overwhelmed’ with emotion during the ceremony on Monday.
Second repatriation from Canterbury Museum
The tribes and the Can-
terbury Museum believe
the remains were poten-
tially sold to the museum
by Professor Henry Ward
in the early 1900s. Ward
was an American scientist,
explorer and museum
builder.
He travelled the globe
trading, purchasing and
amassing a huge collec-
tion of fossils and other
objects for his collections.
On Easter Island
This is the second time
Canterbury Museum has re-
turned ancestral remains to
another country. In 2018,
remains were returned to
the Rapa Nui—the aborigi-
nal Polynesian inhabitants of
Easter Island.
Delay by earthquake
The Canterbury Mu-
seum director and staff
are pleased the Wasco re-
mains are finally being
returned to the ancestral
homelands. Part of the
delay in the process was
due to a powerful earth-
quake that struck
Christchurch in 2011.
Seniors Program will pro-
vide bus transportation.
Three of the Mâori
people are planning to at-
tend. A tribal meal at the
Celilo Longhouse will follow
the re-burial. The Confed-
erated Tribes provided
salmon, deer meat and
roots.
Interestingly, the Mâori
are long-time friends of the
tribes. They have visited
Warm Springs on a number
of occasions. The Mâori
and Warm Springs share
similar cultural traditions,
such as unique basketry and
traditional dance.
It was by fortunate
chance that the Mâori are
the tribe to assist with the
repatriation.
Dave McMechan