PAF to repatriate Native American remains

By Katie Ellis

With the time-consuming process of documenting box upon box of Native American remains, sacred objects and grave goods behind her, Nina Versaggi, director of the Public Archaeology Facility, is now planning for what comes next: return of the remains and items to their tribes.

On March 11, delegates from the Haudenosaunee Committee, a standing committee of delegates from the Iroquois Confederacy that oversees burials and regulations, will come to campus for a consultation in preparation for that return.

It has taken years to get to this point, said Versaggi. “In the past, a lot of museums spent time and effort to collect grave goods and human remains for research and display purposes,” she said. “Gradually, the voice of Native Americans started to emerge [saying] that these items should be returned. The National Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990 was passed to right some of these historical wrongs.”

The federal government then initiated a series of steps and deadlines for documenting items, with any institution that receives federal funding or holding a federal charter of any type required to meet them. “There are four steps outlined in the law, with the first being completion of a general summary of what we have,” said Versaggi. “This would include human remains, sacred objects, funerary objects buried with the dead and objects of cultural patrimony — things that could be sacred, but belonging to an entire tribe rather than an individual.”

Binghamton University met the first deadline, then moved on to the next step — a detailed, item-by-item inventory. “This was a huge endeavor,” said Versaggi. “We had to look in every box for anything that met the four categories.” PAF received a National Park Service grant to help complete the inventory, which consists mainly of small items, including human remains and shell beads from six or seven sites, and a large collection that included the remains of about 140 individuals salvaged from the Englebert Site in Nichols. The Englebert Site is a large graveyard uncovered in the early days of archaeology in the Southern Tier, during construction of Route 17.

“It was a salvage operation more than anything,” said Versaggi. “People were desperately trying to salvage these graves and bring them back here before they were lost. Some of the remains were housed at the Tioga Historical Society, and we also sent human remains to the state museum. We actually conducted a joint inventory with the New York State Museum, and representatives from there will be here for the consultation as well.”
With the inventory complete, step three in the process is the upcoming consultation with delegates from those tribes that are likely to have claims for the items held by the University. “The delegates will come here to discuss their claims,” said Versaggi. “The group coming is loosely organized into a committee that represents the traditional chiefs of most of the Iroquois tribes.”

Versaggi likens the visit to campus by the Native American delegates to that of a delegation visiting the United Nations. “This is an important meeting. These are sovereign nations within our borders,” she said. “The delegates these nations are sending are at the level of ambassadors. They have very strong beliefs, and they’re bringing their clan mothers with them as well. The clan mothers select chiefs and monitor their activities. They even have the right to remove them from their position as chiefs.

“They’re coming here in good faith, and we have good relations with them,” added Versaggi. “They’ll discuss and make their claims. If there are any disputes among the delegates, we’ll encourage them to talk to each other. If necessary, there is a national committee that would have to arbitrate.”
One of two outcomes could result from the consultation. “They could tell me that same day what their claims are,” said Versaggi. “Or, they could take the information with them and discuss it. There is no timetable right now. It’s open to them to tell us what they want.”
Once final claims are made in writing to Versaggi, she must corroborate that the claims are legitimate. She will then have the claims published in the Federal Register and wait for the comment period to end. Repatriation of the remains will follow, most likely in late spring or summer.
When the formal repatriation occurs, representatives from the tribes — perhaps accompanied by their clan mothers and faith keepers — will accept the remains and other items. It’s most likely they will return the remains and goods to areas as close as possible to where they were originally found.
“There has to be mutual respect and respect for each other’s cultural traditions,” said Versaggi. “One of the traditional chiefs, who recently died, always said to me, ‘We can’t interrupt the journey of these people without massive disruption to the tribe.’ It’s a matter of honor.”