embers of the Alaska Native invokin the divine blessing of the Creator upo efforts and purpose to support the indigenous people of Alaska in reclaiming, revitalising and perpetuating our diverse cultures and languages; and, members of support and assist the preservation, revitalization of the past and present cultural aska mativa maity Indians, Alaska Natives Smithsonian ".......upd known as Act states in Section 11 Zdentifiostia Indian Funerary sonian Instituti of the of the Indian descendants expeditiously return such remains (together with it is evident that per the National Museum of natural dents of Labes of it is incumbent upon additional documentation of beamma WHEREAS: ALASTA bers of the Alaska Native invoking the divine blessing of the Creator upon our efforts and purpose to support the indigenous peoples of Alaska in reclaiming, revitalizing and perpetuating our diverse cultures and languages; and, members of support and assist Alaska Native community we preservation, maintenance revitalization of the past and prevent cultural lifeways unique to American Indians, Alaska Natives and Native Hawaiians; and, under Public Law 101-601 Protection and Repatriation ast Nous communities opportunity to determine the colleges and collections through NOW Mati BESOLVED, that ve American Graves MOPRA) and Public Imerican radias ka will have position of mins, along with universities, United States; Alaska Federation of posts the formation of a statewide steering mittes to explore means for the final disposition of these nidentified Alaska and/or unclaimed ancestral kamen remains, NOW EREFORE BE IT RESOLVED; that the Alaska Federation of Natives Convention call upon all available resources, including, but not limited to, the alaska Congressional Delegation to assist in instituting change within the Repatriation office of the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History that respects claimants ' wishes for the treatment of the remains. TESTIMONY OF ELIZABETH BLACKOWL, PRESIDENT OF Good morning, Chairman McCain and respected members of the Indian Affairs Committee. My name is Elizabeth Blackowl and I am the President of the Pawnee Tribe of Oklahoma. Thank you for the opportunity to offer testimony before this committee on behalf of the Pawnee Tribe regarding the implementation of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990 ("NAGPRA"). NAGPRA ranks among the most important Native American human rights laws ever enacted. NAGPRA establishes national guidelines and procedures for federally funded museums and federal agencies to repatriate important cultural items to appropriate Native American tribes and people. Mr. Chairman, NAGPRA can and has worked. Since 1989, the Pawnee Tribe has repatriated and reburied well over one thousand (1,000) human remains and funerary objects under state and federal laws. The reinterment of our ancestors in accordance with Pawnee traditions has been an important activity for our entire Tribe. For example, Senator McCain, we were deeply moved by your presence at the ceremonies held at Ft. McNair last June, when the remains of six Pawnee Scout U.S. Army veterans were repatriated, with your assistance, from the National Museum of Natural History for reburial in Nebraska with full military honors. The repatriation and reburial of these war dead with the assistance of the Defense Department's Office of Casualty Affairs gave the true meaning of NAGPRA to the Pawnee, Arikara and Wichita people who attended the reburial services in Genoa, Nebraska; and we continue to appreciate your efforts to see that those veterans were laid to rest with the dignity and honor that they deserved. However, NAGPRA implementation efforts are expensive and time-consuming and could be improved by our nation based upon five years of experience with the important law. Indeed, similar to the civil rights legislation and policies of the 1960's which are still being implemented today, NAGPRA will take years for our Nation to fully implement, because NAGPRA addresses a widespread national problems. Hopefully, through the good will efforts of this Committee, Indian tribes and museums, we can strive to improve implementation efforts. Toward that end, I highly commend the Committee for its hard work in passing NAGPRA in 1990 and for holding this oversight hearing in 1995 to see how the law is working from the perspective of affected Indian Tribes and museums. I hope my testimony regarding Pawnee experiences and recommendations will be of assistance to the Committee and to the museum and Indian communities. My testimony covers three areas: First, I will discuss the background of Pawnee repatriation efforts since 1989. Second, I will raise some concerns or problems which our Tribe experienced in implementing NAGPRA. And, third, I will respectfully offer some recommendations to address the concerns which we encountered, for the Committee's consideration. BACKGROUND OF PAWNEE NAGPRA IMPLEMENTATION EFFORTS. Like many Indian Tribes, the Pawnee Tribe was historically subjected to massive disturbances of tribal cemeteries and burial grounds. Additionally, many important Pawnee cultural items or patrimony, such as important communally owned ceremonial bundles, left tribal hands over the years -- especially in 1892 - 1934 period when traditional Indian religions were banned by the Federal Government under questionable circumstances. Much of this sad history was presented to this Committee in 1989 and 1990 in support of the passage of NAGPRA and the National Museum of the American Indian Act ("NMAIA") and will not be repeated in my testimony today. Needless to say, the Pawnee Tribe joined Indian country in strongly supporting the passage of NAGPRA and NMAIA, because these were greatly needed laws to protect the religious sensibilities, equal protection and property rights of the Pawnee people. Since 1989, the Pawnee Tribe has been heavily involved in repatriation and reburial activities under state and federal repatriation laws. Almost eleven hundred (1,100) deceased tribal ancestors and associated funerary objects have been reburied to date in four separate reburial ceremonies conducted in our aboriginal homeland of Kansas and Nebraska. Because of the large scope and complex nature of these efforts, the Pawnee government established a Repatriation Committee to work with tribal members, elders, experts, legal counsel and museums. Our efforts have been supported by the legal work and experts of the Native American Rights Fund (NARF:) without which the Tribe would not have been able to accomplish these tasks. While repatriation is an expensive and time consuming task for our hard-pressed, impoverished tribal government, the Pawnee Tribe has deeply appreciated its opportunity to successfully carry out this work, because of the extreme importance of reburying our dead. Mr. Chairman, let me just briefly summarize the four reburial experiences of the Pawnee Tribe since, 1989, prior to sharing our concerns and recommendations. The first three reburials occurred under state laws; and the fourth reburial occurred under NAGPRA and the NMAIA which my testimony and recommendations will focus on. IN |