JUNEAU, Alaska
Groups in Alaska are criticizing a California university’s decision to eliminate the unit that restores American Indian artifacts to their original owners.
Native leaders worry the move at the University of California, Berkeley will delay or prevent the return of artifacts to tribes and clans under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act.
The university’s Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology boasts the second largest collection of American Indian remains and items in the country, including hundreds of Northwest Coast art and Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian objects.
“My impression is that this is one of the few museums where the staff is what we call the ‘old guard,’” says Bob Sam, an elder and expert in human remains and burial site restoration, in Sitka. “They have very strong feelings that these items shouldn’t be turned over to the Native people, but that they should be kept in a safe environment.
“This will put a big obstacle in the process,” he says. “It could hold up some repatriation claims for many, many years.”
Five American Indian leaders last week announced the formation of the Native American NAGPRA Coalition to protest the university’s decision.
