cultural resources

MACPRA News Coverage

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

From the Petoskey News-Review:

The Little Traverse Bay Bands (LTBB) of Odawa Indians, along with 11 other federally recognized tribes and two state recognized tribes in Michigan which form the Michigan Anishnaabek Cultural Preservation and Repatriation Alliance (MACPRA), are currently seeking the return of about 60 Native American remains from the Cranbrook Institute of Science in Bloomfield Hills.

The remains, which scientists believe belonged to Native Americans who hunted and fished in what is now Oakland County hundreds of years before European arrival, have spent several decades in the back rooms of Cranbrook — unaffiliated with any specific tribe.

According to U.S. law — the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) — requires federally funded institutions such as Cranbrook to return Native American bones that are found with artifacts affiliating them with a specific tribe, if that tribe requests it.

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Cranbrook Institute to Return Remains to LTBB

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

From AP:

BLOOMFIELD HILLS, Mich. (AP) — It’s a matter of “doing the right thing,” according to the director of the Cranbrook Institute of Science, which plans to turn over the remains of about 60 Native Americans to the Little Traverse Bay Band of Odawa Indians.

The bones have spent decades in the back rooms of the suburban Detroit museum, part of its vast collection of artifacts from cultures around the world. They belong to people who hunted and fished in what is now Oakland County hundreds of years before the first Europeans arrived.

This fall, Cranbrook expects to surrender the remains after publication of a notice in the Federal Register to alert other tribes that might want to claim the bones.

“This is a very emotionally and in some respects a politically charged issue,” institute director Mike Stafford told the Detroit Free Press. “We feel we’re doing the right thing. And I hope it inspires other institutions to do the same.”

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Makah Rez Featured in the Seattle Times Travel Section

trentcrable

To read the story, see the pictures, and watch the audio/video clip (featuring narration by my cousin Janine!) go to the paper’s site here.

From the Seattle Times:

When Polly DeBari looks at Tatoosh Island, she sees the historic lighthouse, the crumpled old weather station and the crane clinging to the rocky terrain.

In her mind, she also sees the generations of Makah who once paddled out to the tiny coastal island off Cape Flattery for summer halibut and whaling seasons.

“You think about years and years ago, your parents, your great-grandparents, your ancestors were on that island,” she said. “It’s just kind of special to know you could be so close.”

In the summer, DeBari has a regular perch with a clear vantage of the island. She is a cultural interpreter for the Makah Cultural & Research Center, and spends summer days high above the sea at Cape Flattery, where the Pacific Ocean and the Strait of Juan de Fuca joust for territory.

She welcomes people to the Makah reservation and the most northwesterly point in the contiguous United States.

ICT Profiles Ziibiwing Moccasin Exhibit

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

From ICT:

MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. – Hand-crafted moccasins from several tribes filled a room May 31 for a special exhibit at the Ziibiwing Center of Anishinabe Culture & Lifeways.

Most moccasins on display originated from the late 1890s, with the oldest pair being from the Iroquois (Haudenosaunee) Confederacy and dating back to about 1850. Many pairs were decorated with intricate bead and quill designs.

Event advertisements promised more than 40 pairs of moccasins to visitors of the Ziibiwing Center in Mount Pleasant, but guests were treated to about 100 pairs from private collectors who live in the area.

The one-day exhibit primarily focused on moccasins constructed by indigenous people east of the Mississippi River, from the Great Lakes region to the Atlantic Ocean and some areas southward. Today, these tribes are commonly described as woodland Indians.

University of Michigan Anishinaabemowin Classes Profiled

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

In USA Today:

DETROIT (AP) — The statistics might not be promising, but personal experience offers Brooke Simon hope that her ancestors’ language won’t disappear.

Lecturer Margaret Noori leads a weekly Ojibwe language study group at the University of Michigan, Thursday, April 3, in Ann Arbor, Mich.

“I can walk down the street and hear someone yell ‘aanii!’ from across the street,” said the 20-year-old University of Michigan student, referring to a greeting in Ojibwe, or Anishinaabemowin. “Students aren’t afraid to use the language and learn about this language.”

Simon participates in the Ann Arbor university’s Program in Ojibwe Language and Literature, one of the largest of its kind in the nation. It seeks to teach and preserve the American Indian language spoken by about 10,000 in more than 200 communities across the Great Lakes region — but 80% of them are older than 60.

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Edward Rothstein on NAGPRA

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

The glorious thing about being a critic and delivering big picture commentary is that you can do it with the blissful ignorance of not having any context whatsoever.

From Indianz and the NYTs:

In the United States, for example, 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.

The idea of cultural property also led to the Army Corps of Engineers’ bulldozing an archaeological site in Washington State in 1998 that had yielded a 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.”

Makah Whale Hunt Draft EIS

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here it is.

Nokomis Learning Center Article in ICT

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

From ICT:

Nokomis Learning Center educates community

OKEMOS, Mich. – Nokomis Learning Center, an American Indian cultural learning center in Okemos, provides many educational programs, exhibitions and events throughout the year.

The center estimates about 30 to 40 guests attend the center each day, with the number skyrocketing during school tours and special events.

”It really varies,” said Maria Raviele. ”A lot of school groups come in October and November. It picks up again in April and May when it’s warmer,” said the graduate student, who lives in Lansing and attends nearby Michigan State University.

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Nokomis Learning Center News Coverage in Indian Country Today

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

From ICT:

OKEMOS, Mich. – Chilly temperatures and gloomy skies didn’t darken the spirits of the more than 50 people who attended the inaugural spring feast and fundraiser at Nokomis Learning Center April 13.

The feast brought several members of the American Indian community together and helped to raise funds for the 19-year-old American Indian cultural learning center in Okemos.

”The truth is that [Nokomis Learning Center] is kind of poor right now,” said Theron Moore, who serves as president of the center’s board of directors and helps run a construction company in Holt. ”We need to raise money to make sure it keeps operating.”

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Ohio Museums and Universities and Repatriation

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

From the Columbus Disptatch:

At the same time that Ohio State University is preparing to send the remains of American Indians back to West Virginia, the school is returning tissue and blood samples from Yanomamo tribes, at the request of the Brazilian government.

In northeastern Ohio, the Cleveland Museum of Natural History has received a letter from Odawa Indians requesting the return of two wooden ceremonial bowls. The Cleveland Museum of Art is talking with Italian authorities who want several antiquities returned.

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