Last November, the Founders Museum, a small institution housed in a library in Barre, Massachusetts, repatriated 150 ill-gotten objects to the Laktoa and Sioux nations of Wounded Knee, South Dakota, site of one of the deadliest massacres initiated by the US military against Native Americans.
Many of the items in question, ranging from ritual garments to moccasins, are believed to have been torn from the battlefield following the carnage of 1890. Their return marked an important coda in a century-long struggle for members of the affected nations. by this massacre, in which approximately 300 Lakota were reportedly killed. But it also raised complicated questions about the next step in the recovery process: what happens after the artifacts return?
According to a recent report by The New York Times. Some tribesmen want to bury or burn the grave goods in accordance with religious practices, while others want them displayed in museums run by tribal councils. Still others believe that the objects should be returned to the descendants of those who originally owned them.
“It’s the prerogative of the tribe, but they want to use or reinvigorate the article,” said Shannon O’Loughlin, executive director of the Association on American Indian Afairs and a citizen of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. Time.
Last year it was revealed that less than half institutions subject to the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990 (NAGPRA) – which requires government-funded institutions to acknowledge their ownership of Native human remains and sacred objects – had returned these objects to the groups to which they belong. In October 2022, the Ministry of the Interior proposed to revise regulations to expedite the implementation of the law and the repatriation of sacred cultural and funerary objects, as well as human remains.
The Founders Museum did not repatriate objects from its collection for decades, saying it was not covered by NAGPRA because it had not received federal funding. Last November’s repatriation came more than 130 years after the Wounded Knee massacre and a decade after an agreement was reached between the tribes and the institution.
Marlis Afraid of Hawk, whose grandfather survived the massacre, told the Time she supported the burning of artifacts. “When your loved one is dead, you burn their stuff,” she said.
Ivan Looking Horse, whose ancestors were killed at Wounded Knee, argued for a more varied approach. “Some things are for burning, some for burying and some for educating,” he said. Time. “Others can be used to pray with future generations.”
For now, the items are housed at Oglala Lakota College in Kyle, South Dakota, where a caretaker will continue to pray for them daily.
