[nativestudies-l] Fwd: PR: Nation's Largest Indian Org Condemns UC Berkeley on Human Remains

Thu Nov 29 02:30:49 EST 2007

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Danika Medak-Saltzman <danikams at berkeley.edu>
Date: Nov 29, 2007 2:05 AM
Subject: PR: Nation's Largest Indian Org Condemns UC Berkeley on Human Remains
To: Patricia Penn Hilden <pahap2 at earthlink.net>, pmork at allstate.com,
SHARON MEDAK <smedak at yahoo.com>, Joyce Vincent
<dvincent at acad.umass.edu>, Rodina Cave <cave15 at hotmail.com>, Elliot
Saltzman <esaltz at bu.edu>, ashleypino at berkeley.edu, Abby Rosenheck
<abigail14 at mac.com>, Alex Lowther <alowther at berkeley.edu>, Gina Brown
<ginanyeemabrown at yahoo.com>, chicsoup4sol at comcast.net, EMMA SHAW CRANE
<emmaseb at calmail.berkeley.edu>, fuifuilupe at berkeley.edu, Francisca
Cázares <fcazares at berkeley.edu>, Elizabeth Gillis
<egillis at berkeley.edu>, galaxie14 at aol.com, Harold Terezon
<harold.tzn at gmail.com>, jkauanui at wesleyan.edu, sonya_atalay at yahoo.com,
"Joanne L. Rondilla" <jlrondilla at yahoo.com>,
karen at envisionacademy.org, Reidun Ashuri <missreidun at yahoo.com>, nabia
meghelli <nmeghelli at gmail.com>, Melissa Nelson <mknelson at sfsu.edu>,
Heidi Thunberg <hdthunberg at hotmail.com>, Theo Van Alst
<theo.vanalst at gmail.com>

Hello All,
This is just an update about the NAGPRA issue at UC Berkeley. The
following information is being forwarded widely, so you may have
already gotten this. More info is available at the UC Berkeley NAGPRA
Coalition blog at http://nagpra-ucb-faq.blogspot.com/.
I hope you are well.
All best,
Danika

Please Forward

EDITORIAL CONTACT: Ted Howard, 208-759-3100, ext. 243,
thoward4shopai at yahoo.com; Mark LeBeau, 916-801-4422,
Mark.LeBeau at CRIHB.NET

NATIVE AMERICAN NAGPRA COALITION CONTACTS: Reno Franklin 707-591-0580
Ext 105; Lalo Franco, 559-925-2831; Radley Davis 530-917-6064; James
Hayward, 530-410-2875; Morning Star Gali 510-827-6719; Bennae Calac,
760-617-2872; Silvia Burley, California, 209-931-4567; Douglas Mullen,
530-284-7990.

NCAI, the Nation's Largest Indian Organization, Condemns UC Berkeley
on Ancestral Remains, Supports Tribal Coalition's Position

National Congress of American Indians Resolution Rejects UCB's
Elimination of Repatriation Unit, Subordination of Native Religion to
University Research

DENVER, Colorado, Nov. 28, 2007 – The Native American NAGPRA Coalition
(NANC) today strongly endorsed the National Congress of American
Indians' (NCAI) resolution protesting UC Berkeley's decision to
eliminate its tribally approved NAGPRA unit, diminish tribal
participation and influence in repatriation processes and declare a
huge portion of the Phoebe Hearst Museum's collection of ancestral
remains and funerary objects "to be culturally unaffiliated and thus
not subject to tribal repatriation and NAGPRA requirements." The
resolution, which passed without dissent at the NCAI Annual Convention
in Denver, also states that the "needs of scientists and scientific
values" at the Museum "must be subordinate to the religious freedom
and human rights of American Indians..." The Museum's recent
reorganization has elevated research goals over Native American
entitlements under the Native American Graves Protection and
Repatriation Act (NAGPRA).

The text of the resolution is pasted below and the signed resolution
is attached to this email.

Founded in 1944 in response to termination and assimilation policies
forced upon the tribal governments by the United States, NCAI now has
over 250 member tribes across the country. NCAI the largest and most
venerable Native American organization in America, and is best
positioned to monitor federal laws, policies and decisions that affect
tribal government interests. In this capacity, the organization
"strongly recommends that appropriate authorities immediately
undertake a formal investigation of the Phoebe Hearst Museum…"

In August, the Native American NAGPRA Coalition asked UC Berkeley
Chancellor Robert J. Birgeneau to stop the Museum reorganization and
meet with NANC to discuss the past and future of NAGPRA at the Hearst
Museum. NANC's letter protested the complete and deliberate exclusion
of tribal representatives from the reorganization decision process,
the new organizational structure that subordinates Native American
religious rights to the goals of science, and the failure of the
University to adequately consult with tribes on the cultural
affiliation of ancestral remains and sacred objects per the
requirements of NAGPRA. The Chancellor ignored the Coalition's
request, dismissed the protest as the agitation of a "few disgruntled
employees," and referred all tribal NAGPRA inquiries to subordinates.
In spite of a major and successful NANC-sponsored demonstration on the
Berkeley campus in October, UC system chief Rory Hume subsequently
ignored similar requests from the Coalition.

"Thus far, the attitude of University officials toward sovereign
Indian tribes has been dismissive, discriminatory and paternalistic,"
said Ted Howard, Shoshone-Paiute, NANC representative and member of
the 30-tribe Great Basin NAGPRA Coalition. "Their primary concern has
been to placate powerful scientists who are extremely hostile to
NAGPRA and who want to keep our ancestors for the purposes of
research. If UC administrators continue this policy and ignore an
organization of the stature of the National Congress of American
Indians, they may destroy any prospect of cooperative and positive
relationships with tribes in the future. Native American ancestral
remains belong to Native Americans, and we will not stop until our
ancestors are repatriated and returned to our mother earth."

Indians regard repatriation as a human rights issue. The right to
control ancestral remains is a basic human entitlement that has been
extended to almost every ethnic group in the United States except
Native Americans. Throughout American history, scientists routinely
pillaged Native American burials and shipped massive amounts of
ancestral remains to museums for scientific study.  "It is time to
correct this fundamental injustice," said Howard.

For additional information on the UCB NAGPRA issue, visit
http://nagpra-ucb-faq.blogspot.com and http://nagpra-ucb.blogspot.com.

###

N A T I O N A L C O N G R E S S O F A M E R I C A N I N D I A N S

The National Congress of American Indians

Resolution #DEN-07-033

TITLE: Support for NAGPRA at the University of California - Berkeley

WHEREAS, we, the members of the National Congress of American Indians
of the United States, invoking the divine blessing of the Creator upon
our efforts and purposes, in order to preserve for ourselves and our
descendants the inherent sovereign rights of our Indian nations,
rights secured under Indian treaties and agreements with the United
States, and all other rights and benefits to which we are entitled
under the laws and Constitution of the United States, to enlighten the
publictoward a better understanding of the Indian people, to preserve
Indian cultural values,and otherwise promote the health, safety and
welfare of the Indian people, do herebyestablish and submit the
following resolution; and

WHEREAS, the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI)
wasestablished in 1944 and is the oldest and largest national
organization of AmericanIndian and Alaska Native tribal governments;
and

WHEREAS, the Chancellor of the University of California at Berkeley
has,without properly consulting with appropriate American Indian
tribes, decided todiscontinue the tribally approved NAGPRA unit
dedicated to discharging Universityresponsibilities to tribes under
federal NAGPRA laws and regulations and has movedto place the NAGPRA
program within other activities of the Phoebe Hearst Museumof
Anthropology, thereby diminishing tribal participation and influence
in the existingNAGPRA unit; and

WHEREAS, the needs of scientists and the scientific values of the
PhoebeHearst Museum of Anthropology's collection of skeletal material
and other sacredobjects must be subordinate to the religious freedom
and human rights of AmericanIndians whose ancestors and sacred
cultural properties are housed in said collections; and

WHEREAS, The Great Basin Intertribal NAGPRA Coalition (30 tribes)
andother tribes have vigorously opposed this action by the University
of California atBerkeley; and

WHEREAS, as much as fifty percent (minimum of 5,675
biologicalindividuals (50%) and 69,028 Associated Funerary Objects) of
the Phoebe HearstMuseum of Anthropology's collections have been
incorrectly declared to be culturallyunaffiliated and thus not subject
to tribal repatriation and NAGPRA requirements; and

WHEREAS, the decision by the Chancellor of the University of
California atBerkeley places sacred American Indian skeletal remains
and artifacts into the handsof University employees who are
inadequately trained in the care and preservation ofsuch sacred items
according to tribal customs and traditions; and

WHEREAS, the NCAI quotes Section C of NAGPRA; Museum means any
institution, including institutions of higher learning – colleges,
universities etc. or state or local government agencies that possess
or has control over Native American collections (human remains or
cultural items) and receives funds through grant, loan, contract or
other arrangement by which Federal money or assistance is given to a
museum for any purpose, are bound by the stipulations of NAGPRA; and

WHEREAS, Section 5 of NAGPRA says, "In general" each Federal agency
and each museum which has possession or control over holdings or
collections of Native American human remains and associated funerary
objects shall compile an inventory of such items and, to the extent
possible based on information possessed by such museum or federal
agency, identify the geographical and cultural affiliation of such
item. Requirements (1) the inventories and identification required
under subsection (a) shall be (A) competed in consultation with tribal
governments and Native Hawaiian organization officials and traditional
religious leaders.

NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the NCAI does hereby
stronglyrecommend that appropriate authorities immediately undertake a
formal investigation of the Phoebe Hearst Museum of Anthropology of
the University of California at Berkeley, to determine what provisions
of NAGPRA and related federal requirements have been overlooked by the
actions and inactions of the Phoebe Hearst Museum and the University
of California, Berkeley.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that this resolution shall be the policy of
NCAI until it is withdrawn or modified by subsequent resolution.

CERTIFICATION

The foregoing resolution was adopted by the General Assembly at the
2007 Annual Session of the National Congress of American Indians, held
at the Hyatt Regency Denver at the Colorado Convention Center in
Denver, Colorado on November 11-16, 2007, with a quorum present.

-- 
Theo. Van Alst
Coordinator
Native American Cultural Society Office
University of Connecticut
860-486-9755
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