Cranbrook Institute of Science

Cranbrook Repatriation

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

From Indianz:

The Cranbrook Institute of Science in Michigan is preparing to repatriate 59 ancestors to a group of tribes.

The 13 tribes requested the ancestors in 2008. The museum’s board of directors voted to repatriate the remains under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act.

“It is the right thing to do,” Michael Stafford, the Institute’s director, told The Detroit Free Press. “We don’t view these remains as data. We see them as people, with spirits and souls.”

The Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians is coordinating the process. The band will work with the other tribes on the reburial.

“We see this as a human rights issue,” Eric Hemenway, a repatriation expert for the tribe, told the paper.

Get the Story:

Tribes to finally lay ancestors to rest (The Detroit Free Press 7/21)

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.

Continue reading →

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.”

Continue reading →