RESTORING BALANCE
A TWO-DECADE EFFORT SHEPHERDS
DOZENS OF TLINGIT OBJECTS HOME BY ANNE BOLEN
F
or the Tlingit people of southeast Alaska, balance is everything. Al- though their world is divided in half—one side belonging to that of the Raven and the other to the Ea-
gle/Wolf—those who belong to these oppo- site moieties are not rivals. On the contrary, they are often members of the same family by marriage. Whether in their daily lives or at ceremonies, the Tlingit (pronounced klink- kit) make sure that each side is supported and honored, often by displaying objects from their moiety that have existed for generations. These objects are not static. They absorb
the spirits of those who have used them. Har- old Jacobs (Yanÿeidí), the cultural resources specialist for the Central Council Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska (CCTHITA, or Central Council), says, “There’s a saying the elders taught to me: ‘When these objects come out in public, the voices of all those who had them before are heard.’” Yet during the past century or more,
many of these objects were silenced. Muse- ums and private collectors pursued them and Tlingit clans lost many objects essential to their ceremonies and other functions. “Their purpose in the Tlingit cultural world was tragically interrupted,” says Jacquetta Swift
8 AMERICAN INDIAN WINTER 2020
(Comanche/Fort Sill Apache), manager of repatriation at the National Museum of the American Indian. That is why NMAI has worked diligently
with Central Council to bring these cultur- ally critical items home. From 1997 to 2015, the council had submitted requests on be- half of clans for their items to be returned to them. September 2019 marked a major milestone for NMAI: the last of these claims for objects was completed. This was cele- brated at a ceremony at the museum, during which three daggers, a beaded dancing shirt and a robe were returned to the council on behalf of three Tlingit clans. During the past two decades, NMAI has returned 73 objects defined as funerary, sacred or cultural patri- mony (having ongoing historical, traditional or cultural importance) to the Tlingit people. Seeing these objects return to their peo-
ple is “an absolute honor and privilege,” says Swift. “We are correcting an historical wrong.”
MORE THAN A MISSION
Enacted by the U.S. Congress, the first fed- eral U.S. law to require repatriation was the National Museum of the American Indian Act (NMAI Act) of 1989. This law not only established the museum but also mandated
that all Smithsonian museums that hold Na- tive American human remains and funerary items eligible for repatriation be returned to their culturally affiliated tribes or lineal de- scendants upon request. However, this law only applied to the Smithsonian museums. In 1996, the NMAI Act was amended to
expand the categories under which tribes could submit claims for items. These cate- gories of claim mirrored those in the Native American Graves Protection and Repatri- ation Act, federal legislation that Congress passed in 1990 that says claims for Native American human remains, funerary objects, sacred objects and objects of cultural patri- mony can be submitted. This law applies to all other federal agencies and institutions that receive federal funding and have Native American collections eligible for repatriation. NMAI and Smithsonian’s National Mu-
seum of Natural History also consider inter- national claims by Indigenous peoples on a case-by-case basis. As of 2019, the NMAI and NMNH have repatriated or made available for repatriation the human remains of more than 6,000 individuals, 250,000 funerary ob- jects and 1,400 sacred objects or objects of cultural patrimony. Of these, nearly 30,000 objects were from NMAI’s collections.
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