Museum releases remains

Page 9

After a year of negotiations and cultural exchanges, the Haida were finally able to take the remains of their ancestors home.

Stored in the Field Museum of Chicago for more than 100 years, the remains of 160 Haida were honoured Oct. 17 in a ceremony preceding their departure back to British Columbia. Several days before the celebration, 40 members of the First Nation's repatriation committee from Old Massett and Skidegate prepared for the return by wrapping the deceaseds' bones in traditional blankets and placing them into bentwood cedar boxes made to travel to their final resting place.

A public display of dances and speeches occurred under the shadow of a pair of century-old totem poles in the museum's foyer, objects that were also collected from Haida Gwaii during an early 20th century expedition. It would have been easy dwell on the previous insensitivities of archaeologists and anthropologists who looted the graves in 1897, 1901 and 1903 for "scientific purposes." Instead, chief of the Haida's Tanu Raven Wolf clan, CheeXial Taaiixou, holds the Field Museum in high regard.

"We can't blame the museums of today for the wrongs that have been done in the past," the chief said, noting how important the afterlife is for his people. "We can thank them (the museum) for insuring that our ancestors' remains have been guarded for the last century."

This effort was the first international repatriation conducted by the Field Museum and the largest return of Haida remains from the United States. While American tribes have been notified of collections of remains held by all the museums, as mandated by the Native Americans Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (1990), foreign Aboriginal peoples such as the Haida do not fall under this law passed by the United States Congress.

Stating how all requests for the return of remains and artifacts are given the utmost consideration, museum provost Robert Martin said international boundaries should be irrelevant in this act of goodwill.

"There's no reason that people should be treated differently, whether they live south or north of the border." Martin added the Field Museum is committed to establishing positive relations with other cultures. "We will treat equally all requests from all Native Americans, not just those from the U.S.A."

Before European contact, the Haida population on the islands 100 kilometres west of Prince Rupert ranged between 10,000 and 18,000, but by the early 1900s that number was reduced to between 500 and 600, as a result of the importation of smallpox and other diseases. Scientists therefore rationalized the need to exhume bodies and gather remnants for study before the tribe became extinct, as they believed would happen then. Now, exactly a hundred years after the last sponsored expedition, the Haida number between 5,000 and 6,000, though only half live in Haida Gwaii.

Serving on the repatriation committee that seeks to have all Haida remains and artifacts returned to their homeland is Lucille Bell, who has been searching for more than 500 of her ancestors for eight years, starting at the nearby Royal Museum of British Columbia in Victoria in 1995.

"I heard the spirits of my ancestors speaking to me and the great burden of 500 relatives to bring home," Bell confided. "Every repatriation trip is different and our journey is not over."

She pointed out the next museums her group will target are the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. and two museums in the United Kingdom. Bell professed skepticism about obtaining remains from overseas, because the British "don't give up anything."

The Haida's repatriation committee and community choreographed a butterfly dance to symbolize the wayward trek of their ancestors. Describing how their spirits had travelled a long way but had nowhere to go, Elder Ethel Jones quietly explained to the gathering of several hundred guests and the general public how this insect was chosen.

"Because of what happened many years back andhow they took our loved ones away from the Queen Charlotte Islands, it looked like they were very far away from home," said Jones.

The Haida want to maintain the good relationship developed with the museum, in order to repatriate hundreds of other artifacts that were also claimed during expeditions, including the two 12-metre totem poles that are centrepieces for the museum.

Following ceremonies in Old Massett and Skidegate, the Haida reburied 160 of their ancestors on Oct. 25 and 26.