Posted on 01/27/2024 9:39:51 PM PST by Red Badger
New York’s venerable American Museum of Natural History and leading institutions across the country are shutting down major exhibits of Native American artifacts in response to new federal regulations limiting the display of cultural items.
Under the guidelines announced recently by the Biden administration, museums must obtain permission from Native American tribes before displaying or performing research on cultural items, many of which were donated generations ago by archeologists who had stolen them after digging up sacred burial grounds.
The policy led the museum to close two exhibits — the Hall of the Great Plains, which includes jewelry, tools and weapons from the Cree, Cheyenne, Assiniboine, and Crow tribes, and the Eastern Woodlands exhibit, which features items from the Iroquois, Mohegans, Ojibwas and Crees.
The closures go into effect Saturday. The exhibits will be closed to visitors and staff.
“The halls we are closing are artifacts of an era when museums such as ours did not respect the values, perspectives and indeed shared humanity of Indigenous peoples,” Sean Decatur, the museum’s president, wrote in a letter to the museum’s staff on Friday morning.
“Actions that may feel sudden to some may seem long overdue to others.”
The closures, first reported in the New York Times, represent a seismic shift in how artifacts are displayed.
Along with denying access to the affected exhibits, museum officials are also covering other display cases throughout the museum that feature Native American cultural items.
The rules come out of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, which was passed more than 30 years ago.
But efforts to return such items dragged on for decades. This month, new federal regulations took effect that were designed to speed up returns, giving institutions five years to prepare all human remains and related funerary objects for repatriation and giving more authority to tribes throughout the process.
“The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act is an essential tool for the safe return of sacred objects to the communities from which they were stolen,” Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said last month when the new rules were finalized.
“Among the updates we are implementing are critical steps to strengthen the authority and role of Indigenous communities in the repatriation process. Finalizing these changes is an important part of laying the groundwork for the healing of our people.”
The new guidelines took effect Jan. 12 and affect museums throughout the country including institutions in Chicago, Cleveland and Cambridge, Mass.
The displays in New York City will be off limits to the nearly five million people who visit the American Museum of Natural History every year.
According to museum staff, student field trips will be rerouted for the foreseeable future.
“The number of cultural objects on display in these halls is significant,” Decatur said. “And because these exhibits are also severely outdated, we have decided that rather than just covering or removing specific items,we will close the halls.”
Artifacts, dioramas, and representations of Native American culture from the northwest coast of North America are displayed, Tuesday, May 10, 2022, at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)
Cowards and fools! I learned a lot about American Indians from going to museums, including this one and subscribed to Natural History magazine for decades.
They changed over the years and hired an open MARXIST Stephen Jay Gould to do a lot of their columns writing.
Should is listed as a member of the Advisory Board of “Rethinking Marxism”, Summer 1990, Volume 3, Number 2.
“The aim of Rethinking Marxism is to stimulate interest in and debate over the explanatory power and social consequences of Marxian economic, cultural and social analysis”. Inside front cover page.
Hope this helps explain a small part of the thinking of leftist New York State and others regarding museum collections which help to introduce people to differing cultures.
21. Spelchek screwed up the second spelling of Gould’s name, changing it to Should or something like that.
Bodies and skulls should be left alone, but other artifacts should be allowed, except for sacred items. My Indian husband agrees with me. These displays are educational.
Just wait until the dinosaur community gets wind of this! They will want those sacred ancestor dinosaur bones to be given a proper burial. Having them on display for Homo Sapiens to ogle them is downright disrespectful!
👍👍👍👍👍
Bodies and skulls should be left alone, but other artifacts should be allowed, except for sacred items. My Indian husband agrees with me. These displays are educational.
You and me both. I took my kids there a couple of times in the late 70's. We took the train to the City, stayed in a hotel, and walked around, hit Macy's, Lord & Taylor, etc. My sons are in their 50's now.
Indians got smart. White man took all their land. Now they take all the white man's money.
I just looked up the name. Not sure if it's the same one. He was a paleontologist, worked at the museum, but died of cancer in 2002. Is there a later Stephen Jay Gould. I'm assuming he was related to Jay Gould, railroad magnate, speculator, "robber baron."
Fun Fact: I'm currently reading a book published in 1968 titled: "The Great Dinosaur Hunters and Their Discoveries" by Edwin H. Colbert. Pretty interesting book.
Good....if my culture is being destroyed then so should others....George Orwell would feel smug since he predicred all of this..
I am confused by the fact that Natives are working so hard to be erased from American life.
I would be proud, if my artifacts were exposed in major museum!
I would be proud, if the Cleveland baseball team were named after my heritage!
I would be proud, if a beautiful picture of girl in my country dress were on a butter package!
Somebody can enlighten me?
And because this WAS a program...I'll bet there are a lot of Museums that have done the same.
They are upset because someone wants to land on the Moon because Native Americans consider the Moon sacred and they want everyone in the world to be utterly mindful, respectful and obedient to their culture.
How is that knowledge of their ‘culture’ to be promulgated if not by museums and other public venues that showcase it? Word of mouth? THEIR word and lore that can get twisted with any political wind of the day?
Italian-heritage Americans should demand that all the Italian art be returned to Italy.
“These displays are educational”
Room is needed for TODAY’S Indigenous people crossing Eagle Pass’ border.
(Plus room for ME terrorists).
Pontiacs, Gran Cherokees....
I’m more Irish than a lot of the local “Indians” are Indian, and I take offense at them appropriating my culture in their casinos.
/mordant sarcasm
Regards,
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