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He was looking for native objects in a university and found bodies stored in "the most inhumane way possible"

2022-09-04T22:29:17.922Z


What began as a search for artifacts on display at the University of North Dakota library led to the discovery of remains in cardboard boxes.


By Graham Lee

Brewer

Last winter, University of North Dakota English professor Crystal Alberts began searching for a lost pipe, headdress and moccasins that were once on display in the university library, delving into the recesses of the campus of almost 140 years. 

The collection was removed from the library in 1988, after students questioned whether the university should display objects of religious significance to Native Americans.

Alberts, a colleague and his assistant searched back rooms and closets, opening unmarked cardboard boxes. 

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Inside one of them, Alberts saw the pipe.

The assistant grabbed her and said, "Don't touch her."

University of North Dakota English professor Crystal Alberts turned to her native-born colleagues for help after finding a lost pipe with religious significance in a warehouse box. Grant McMillan

Alberts called Laine Lyons, a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians who works for the UND Alumni Association & Foundation, and asked for her help.

Lyons met with Alberts to advise her on how to handle objects respectfully, watching as they opened box after box.

Lyons said she now feels naive remembering it, but she never expected what they found:

more than 70 human remains,

many of them in boxes with no identifying information. 

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“The best way I can describe how we have found things is in the most inhumane way possible.

Not taking into account that they were once people,” Lyons recalled.

She said it sank: Her university had failed to treat Native American remains with dignity and repatriate them to tribes, as required by federal law. 

"At that time," he said, "we were another institution that didn't do the right thing."

Laine Lyons.UND Alumni Association

As soon as the bodies were discovered, UND President Andrew Armacost said administrators contacted the tribes - at first half a dozen and now 13 - to begin the process of returning the remains and more than 100 religious objects. 

“What we have done as a university is terrible, and I will continue to apologize for it,” Armacost said at a news conference on Wednesday, pledging that all found artifacts and ancestors be returned to the appropriate tribal nation. 

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But that process will likely be daunting and could take years, and in some cases may be impossible due to a paucity of information.

“I am afraid that we will not be able to identify people or that we will not be able to return them to the place where they should be,” Lyons said.

Since the passage of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) in 1990, federal law requires institutions that receive federal funds to catalog their collections with the National Park Service and work to return them to the tribal nations from which they were taken.

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However, the University of North Dakota is not listed on the federal inventory, despite the fact that its administrators acknowledge that it has possessed indigenous artifacts since its inception in 1883.

The discovery at UND is illustrative of a broader systemic problem that has plagued indigenous communities for centuries.

Despite the decades-old law, more than 100,000 are still housed in institutions across the country.

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The action and apologies by North Dakota administrators point to a national reckoning, as tribal nations are increasing pressure on public universities, museums and even libraries to comply with the law and catalog and return the ancestors and the cultural objects of the Native Americans that they own. 

“We are heartbroken by the deeply insensitive treatment of these ancestral indigenous remains and artifacts and extend our deepest apologies to the sovereign tribal nations of North Dakota and beyond,” North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum said in a statement.

“This dark chapter, while extremely hurtful, also presents an opportunity to enhance our understanding and respect for indigenous cultures and to become a model for the nation by conducting this process with the utmost deference to the wishes, customs and traditions of indigenous peoples. tribal nations," he added.

Armacost said he and his colleagues decided to comply with requests from tribal officials not to announce the discovery until a consensus was reached on how to handle the remains, and until indigenous faculty, staff and students could be informed of the discovery. the situation in a respectful manner. 

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Tribal officials and indigenous archivists said UND leaders should be commended for the way they have responded, praising Armacost's willingness to consult tribes immediately after the discovery and publicly apologizing for the university's failures.

But they also called for accountability.

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“It is always extremely traumatic and hurtful that the remains of our ancestors have been disturbed and lost,” Mark Fox, president of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation, said in a statement to NBC News.

"We will closely monitor this matter to ensure that the remains of our ancestors are repatriated as quickly and respectfully as possible under the circumstances."

Many universities and museums have NAGPRA officials who inventory indigenous remains and cultural objects, affiliate them with their original tribes, and eventually return them.

However, the UND does not have its own NAGPRA office.

The university has appointed a committee to review the findings, and Armacost told NBC News that hiring staff to facilitate NAGPRA cases is being considered. 

Dianne Derosiers, a historic preservation officer for the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate, a North Dakota tribal nation, said she wants to know who is responsible for unceremoniously locking up the human remains in the university's storage room.

"I wish I had answers to that question," she declared.

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Armacost noted that finding out who is responsible will be part of the university's investigation.

Lyons said he hopes the UND discovery is a wake-up call for other institutions that are falling behind on NAGPRA compliance. 

"Look at what they have, look at their past," he said.

“And if you know something, you have to say it and not hide it or let it go and wait for someone else to do it.

You have to deal with it immediately."





Source: telemundo

All news articles on 2022-09-04

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