Cross-Cultural Collaboration: Native Peoples and Archaeology in the Northeastern United States

1. Making a Final Resting Place Final: A History of the Repatriation Experience of the Haudenosaunee

1. Making a Final Resting Place Final A History of the Repatriation Experience of the Haudenosaunee richard w. hill sr. Introduction I t was a cloudy day on June , , as horse-drawn caissons made a slow march across the Peace Bridge from Fort Erie, Ontario, to Buffalo , New York. In each of the  flag-draped caskets were the remains of an American soldier who had been killed in action in the War of . Their bodies were uncovered earlier that year during construction at the bridge. No one knew their names, but they were being treated to a full military funeral as they made their way for reburial at a national cemetery in Bath, New York. “No matter how long ago this happened, it's all history . . . whether it happened 200 or 2,000 years ago,” said Michael Perez as he witnessed the procession. “We all fit in as a piece of the puzzle of history,” he told reporters from the Buffalo News (Warner and O’Brien 1988). Tears flowed as these unknown soldiers made their way to their final resting place, being repatriated by the United States at great expense and even greater ritual. Found next to those American soldiers were several Native American allies who were also killed in action. Their remains were not handled with the same care and respect. Instead of being repatriated to any Indian nation , they were unceremoniously carted off to a museum, where they re- Making a Final Resting Place Final  main to this very day. This double standard goes to the heart of why we have a federal law that requires museums, historical agencies, archaeologists , and collectors to respect the Native right to a final resting place. The museum shelf is not the kind of resting place that the law had in mind. The Haudenosaunee, like many other Native nations, have been forced to use federal law to get curators and archaeologists to the bargaining table to resolve this long-standing dilemma.1 It has not been a rewarding experience for us, since we find it very strange that we have to negotiate for the proper handling of our ancestors’ remains in the first place. The convoluted legal definitions, questionable archaeological practices, convenient museum myopia, and governmental “white” tape have often gotten in the way of fruitful discussions. Yet our efforts have not all been without success. In many cases, museums and archaeologists have gotten the message and are working cooperatively with us. Love it or hate it, the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (nagpra) has provided us with unparalleled access to our ancestors ’ remains, burial objects, sacred objects, and objects of cultural patrimony . Once the playground for a small circle of scholars whose work did not have an impact on our communities, museum collections are now having a powerful effect on contemporary Native societies. nagpra and cooperative curators have allowed us to rethink our relationship with our ancestors, to reaffirm our shared values, to learn more about the archaeological record, and basically to ask ourselves, What are the most important spiritual traditions that we need to keep alive? This essay is our first summary of what we have learned from this experience and how it has changed the course of our collective, cultural lives. The Haudenosaunee Standing Committee Our nations operate their repatriation programs under the auspices of the Haudenosaunee. The Grand Council of the Haudenosaunee, in accordance with the Great Law of Peace and based on Haudenosaunee protocols and cultural beliefs, established the Haudenosaunee Standing Committee on Burial Rules and Regulations (hscbrr) to deal with the fact that New York State did not have an effective law to protect the final resting places Richard W. Hill Sr.  of our ancestors. Unfortunately, after nearly two decades of work, the situation has not changed. The hscbrr works with the Six Nations of the Haudenosaunee to develop protocols and procedures for a coordinated approach related to protection of burial remains and, since nagpra was passed, to deal with related matters of repatriation. These traditional nations are governed by the Council of Chiefs and Clan Mothers. There are other governments that are not part of the Haudenosaunee but are recognized as having rights under nagpra. We cooperate with the governments of the Seneca Nation of Indians , the Seneca-Cayuga Tribe of Oklahoma, the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin , the St. Regis Mohawk Tribal Council, and the Council of Chiefs at...