Repatriation

"Notice of Intent to Repatriate a Cultural Item: University of Hawai`i at Manoa, Honolulu, HI. A book entitled,"Hawaiian Kapas: Rodman collection, from Kahua, Kohala," is in the possession of the Hamilton Library, University of Hawai`i at Manoa, Honolulu, HI. The book includes kapa (bark cloth) that originated from four known Hawaiian burial caves including Forbes Cave, Mummy Cave, Kukui Umi Cave, and Kanupa Cave. The manuscript by author Julius Rodman establishes a reasonable belief that the kapa included in the book were removed from the Hawaiian burial caves and are funerary objects as defined by NAGPRA. Since the book includes the kapa, it is considered to be one object and funerary in nature. Officials of the University of Hawai`i at Manoa have determined that, pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 3001(3)(B), the object described above is reasonably believed to have been placed with or near individual human remains at the time of death or later as part of the death rite or ceremony and is believed, by a preponderance of the evidence, to have been removed from a specific burial site of a Native Hawaiian individual." - Federal Register, Vol. 75(123):36666, 28 June 2010.

This was of interest since we have tapa cloth items in our exhibit.


"Notice of Intent To Repatriate Cultural Items: U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management, Alaska State Office, Anchorage, AK. On an unknown date in 1947 or prior to 1947, 89 polar bear skulls were collected by, or under the authority of, Dr. Otto Geist, whose affiliation was then reported as the University of Alaska at Fairbanks.These items were accessioned by the American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY (AMNH), in 1947. AMNH catalog records indicate that these remains were collected from "Cape Chibulak." An examination of records at the AMNH in 2011 led officials there to conclude that "most, if not all of the remains from Cape Chibulak came from the grave of Kowarin." Additional records at the AMNH indicate that these remains were removed from the surface of the grave of "a hunter, Kowarin," which Geist reports was located "on the sandspit just above the rim of the freshwater lake at Cape Chibulak," near the village of Gambell on St. Lawrence Island, AK. [...] Dr. Geist also reported that the grave of Kowarin had been "ransacked" for "souvenirs" and that his remains had been removed. Dr. Geist recorded that "after considerable consultation I was permitted to remove all of the specimens" with the son Otiyohok helping him remove "all of the skulls." Records at the AMNH indicate that at least one box of polar bear remains that were removed from this gravesite were received by the AMNH. Further, one polar bear skull has the name "Kowarin" written on the skull. [...] Today, the recognized Siberian Yupik spelling of "Kowarin" is Quwaaren. A respected hunter and whaler, Quwaaren was born about 1844, probably in Siberia. By the second half of the 19th century, he was living on St. Lawrence Island, where his children were born. Both Quwaaren and his wife Avaltuk, whom he married about 1870, died on St. Lawrence Island in the 1910s and were buried there. [...] Research by BLM has established that at least five of these six children of Quwaaren have living descendants on St. Lawrence Island and elsewhere today." - Federal Register, Vol. 78(232):72711-72712, 3 Dec 2013.


"The Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, Illinois (February 15, 1995): Assistant Curator James Murie acquired the Little Elk Standing Village Bundle and the Big Black Meteoritic Bundle for the institution in 1902 and 1906, respectively. The Pawnee tribe of Oklahoma laid claim to both objects "two of the twelve major sacred bundles of the Pawnee, all of which have ongoing importance central to the Pawnee tribe as a whole and which could not have been alienated, appropriated, or conveyed by an individual." Each bundle satisfied NAGPRA's definition of an "object of cultural patrimony." - American Indian Art, Vol. 21(2):83, Spring 1996.

The above was the sixth item of 20 listed in the magazine's very first Legal Briefs column. Ron McCoy, the editor of the column, states (p. 83), "NAGPRA directly affects the holdings of museums, as broadly defined in the statute. However, dealers and collectors of American Indian art often express interest in possible future extension of the law's repatriative focus into the existing private sphere." I looked at the Legal Briefs section for several subsequent issues of the magazine; McCoy frequently makes introductory remarks about how NAGPRA may continue to affect the art world, just what is entailed in defining patrimony and who might be affected by these definitions, etc. McCoy condenses and summarizes the Fed. Register repatriation notices in his own words: original here.