Conversations on Native American Cultural Sovereignty
The authors are among the founding members of WomenOfBearsEars.org, which supports restoration of Bears Ears National Monument.
Will sacred lands protected by President Obama be protected once again?
Source: Opinion | Women of Bears Ears Are Asking You to Help Save It
Administration seeks to transfer ownership of Arizona area to mining company with ties to the destruction of an Aboriginal site
Source: Revealed: Trump officials rush to mine desert haven native tribes consider holy
from The Washington Post
Their lines have been cut, their traps pulled and their pounds ransacked. Commercial lobstermen say they’re threatening the fishery.
Source: Indigenous people in Nova Scotia exercised their right to catch lobster. Now they’re under attack.
from Indian Country Today
Hopi Tribe, Acoma Pueblo, Zia Pueblo, and Zuni Pueblo ancestors and associated funerary items repatriated and reinterred at Mesa Verde National Park
Thanks to George Toth for this link!
from The Washington Post
The lost Monacan tribal capital is slated for development as a water-pumping facility.
Source: Preservation group lists Indigenous site in Va. among nation’s most endangered landmarks
Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. House Assistant Speaker Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), and U.S. Representatives Deb Haaland (D-N.M.), Don Young (R-Alaska), and Tom Cole (R-Okla.) reintroduced the bipartisan Safeguard Tribal Objects of Patrimony Act, a bill to prohibit the exporting of sacred Native American items and increase penalties for stealing and illegally trafficking tribal cultural patrimony. U.S. Senators Martin Heinrich (D-N.M), the lead author of the legislation, and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) introduced the companion bill in the Senate.
Source: Members of Congress, Senators Introduce Bipartisan, Bicameral STOP Act To Safeguard Tribal Items
On July 27, 2020, the University of California System of research universities announced “the issuance of the UC Native American Cultural Affiliation and Repatriation Interim Policy.”
Phoebe Hearst Museum of Anthropology, UC Berkeley.
In its press release, the UC System explained its purpose and a timeline for moving from an interim policy to a permanent solution:
The University is committed to the repatriation of Native American human remains and cultural items in accordance with the federal Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), its accompanying regulations, and the California Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (CalNAGPRA). The fundamental importance of facilitating the repatriation of Native American and Native Hawaiian human remains and cultural items is captured in the revised Policy and President Napolitano’s cover letter, along with an apology on behalf of the University of California.
With more than 280,000 students and more than 227,000 faculty and staff, and 2.0 million alumni living and working around the world, the UC System’s decision is far-reaching. The interim policy sets up campus committees for each of those schools in the UC System that remain in “control” of Human remains and Cultural items deemed to fall under the auspices of NAGPRA. Its tone is remarkable for its insistence on “respectful consultation” with Native tribes and its effort to create supplemental inventories of campus artifacts that might now be considered items subject to repatriation. The interim policy makes clear its resolution is an ethical one:
UC acknowledges that the injustices perpetrated on Native Hawaiians and Native Americans are reflected even to the present, and that as long as Human Remains and Cultural Items remain in the University’s control, healing and reparation will be incomplete.
It is the result of hundreds of hours of labor by a workgroup composed of faculty, administrators, and community stakeholders that reviewed tribal responses and the outcomes of listening sessions sponsored by the UC Office of the President.
This policy is designed to . . . bring the ancestors home.
Amy Lonetree (Ho-Chunk) Associate Professor of History at UC Santa Cruz, and a member of the workgroup comments, “the UC System does not have the best track record, with some of our campuses remaining steadfast in their opposition to repatriation. This policy is designed to remedy this and bring the ancestors home.”
The final implementation of the policy is expected by December, “in order to allow tribes that have not been able to review due to the COVID-19 pandemic additional time to comment, while at the same time, going forward with a significantly improved process of repatriation.”
from The New York Times
As the pandemic has brought home the importance of the global movement for food sovereignty, members are planting and sharing.
Source: For the Navajo Nation, a Fight for Better Food Gains New Urgency
The Repatriation Files wants its readers to know of this special issue of Arts! Edited by Sascha Scott and Amy Lonetree.
Crescencio Martinez, Two Drummers (1918). Courtesy of Museum of Indian Arts and Culture, Santa Fe, NM. 24157/13.
Special Issue in journal Arts: Native Survivance and Visual Sovereignty: Indigenous Visual and Material Culture in the 19th and 20th Centuries
from Indian Country Today.
Updated: Another blow for pipelines: The U.S. Supreme Court has kept in place a lower court ruling that blocked a key permit for the Keystone XL
Source: ‘Historic day’ for Standing Rock as pipeline company told to shut down, remove oil
