Press Release – 2010 Powwow
ANN ARBOR, MI—For the second year in a row, the University of Michigan campus will not hear the sound of powwow drums, singing, and jingle dancing. Nor will it host some 5,000 Native dancers, drummers, artisans and other powwow people at the annual event—one of the largest student run powwows in the country.
The Native American Student Association (NASA) at the University of Michigan announces its decision to keep the Dance for Mother Earth Powwow from the campus of the University of Michigan. The 38th Annual Dance for Mother Earth Powwow again will be held at Saline Middle School April 10-11, 2010.
The reason? In honor of their ancestors, they are continuing their protest of the University’s ongoing failure to return ancestral human remains to tribes—and to meet federal requirements to engage tribes towards that end.
According to federal inventories, the University Of Michigan Museum Of Anthropology holds 1,390 individuals in its archaeology “collection.” Despite three years of advocacy on the part of many tribal, student and faculty groups, archaeology curators have been steadfast in resisting legal and ethical calls for the reburial of these individuals. Michigan tribes have officially and unofficially notified the museum that by failing to proactively pursue consultation with tribes, the university is in violation of a federal law. The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, passed in 1990, requires museums to conduct tribal consultation and to apply due diligence in obtaining it.
Last October—nearly two decades after NAGPRA was passed—U of M got serious about developing appropriate protocols about Native human remains in its “collection.” The U announced the formation of a committee to develop “advice that is pro-active, respectful and responsive to all interested parties.*
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