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Native American remains discovered at Dartmouth College spark calls for accountability

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1 year ago

May 15, 2023

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As a citizen of the Quapaw Nation, Ahnili Johnson-Jennings has always seen Dartmouth College as the university for Native American students.

Her father graduated from the school, founded in 1769 to educate Native Americans, and she had come to rely on its network of students, professors and administrators. But news in March that the Ivy League school in New Hampshire found partial skeletal remains of 15 Native Americans in one of its collections has Johnson-Jennings and others reassessing that relationship.

“It’s hard to reconcile. It’s hard to see the college in this old way where they were taking Native remains and using them for their own benefit,” said Johnson-Jennings, a senior and co-president of Native Americans at Dartmouth. The remains were used to teach a class as recently as last year, just before an audit concluded they had been wrongly catalogued as not Native.

“It was very upsetting to hear, especially when you’ve just felt so supported by a school and they’ve had that secret that maybe no one knew about, but still, to some sense, was a secret,” Johnson-Jennings said, describing a March meeting where Native American students were briefed on the discovery.

Dartmouth is among a growing list of universities, museums and other institutions wrestling with how best to handle Native American remains and artifacts in their collections and grappling with what these discoveries say about their past policies regarding Native communities.

Until the 20th century, archeologists, anthropologists, collectors and curiosity seekers took Native remains and sacred objects during expeditions on tribal lands. Some remains, including Native skulls, were sought after in the name of science, while bodies were collected by government agencies after battles with tribes. Museums wanted them to enhance their collections while academic institutions came to rely on Native bones as teaching tools.

“One-hundred years ago, it was OK for a professor, for an alumni to go into the lands of a Native community and dig up their ancestors,” said professor Jeremy DeSilva, a paleoanthropologist and chairman of Dartmouth’s anthropology department.

He continued: “It’s amazing that folks didn’t recognize how harmful that was.”

For Native tribes, the loss of the remains and cultural items caused significant pain. The remains, most believe, are imbued with the spirit of the ancestor to whom they belong and are connected to living citizens of those tribes. They could go to court or negotiate with an institution for them to be repatriated. But it wasn’t until the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act or NAGPRA in 1990 that a process was created for their return.

It requires federally funded institutions, including universities, to return remains and funerary items to rightful communities. In February, Cornell University returned ancestral remains to the Oneida Indian Nation that were inadvertently dug up in 1964 and stored for decades in a school archive. Colgate University in November returned to the Oneidas more than 1,500 items once buried with ancestral remains, some dating back 400 years. And since 1995, Dartmouth itself has repatriated skeletal remains of 10 Native Americans along with 36 burial objects.

Critics complain that many institutions move too slowly in repatriating remains and funerary items once they’re discovered in their collections, often hiding behind a loophole in NAGPRA that allows them to label remains as culturally unidentifiable. That puts the burden on tribes to prove the remains are their ancestors, an expense many can’t afford.

Some 884,000 Native American artifacts — including nearly 102,000 human remains — that should be returned to tribes under federal law are still in the possession of colleges, museums and other institutions across the country, according to data maintained by the National Park Service.

The University of California, Berkeley tops the list, according to the Park Service, followed closely by the Ohio History Connection, a nonprofit organization working to preserve the state’s history, and Harvard University’s Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology.

Shannon O’Loughlin, chief executive of the Association on American Indian Affairs, a national group that assists tribes with repatriations, called the practice racist.

“It just says that they value the idea of Native Americans as specimens more than they do as human beings,” said O’Loughlin, a citizen of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma.

The most recent discovery at Dartmouth has set off the complex and complicated process of returning the remains to the affiliated tribes.

The remains, in its teaching collection in Silsby Hall, were discovered in November, following an audit spearheaded by Jami Powell, curator of Indigenous art at Dartmouth’s Hood Museum.

Until they were found to be Native, the bones had been stored in a locked cabinet in the basement. They have since been moved to a secure off-campus location and Dartmouth has hired a team of independent experts to study them and do archival research to determine their origin. The college said the review will take months.

It also is studying an additional 100 bones that may be Native American and working with tribes to repatriate additional bone fragments related to three individuals that were repatriated in the 1990s.

“For me as an Indigenous person, it’s always important in my work that I treat these ancestors with the utmost care and respect and that an essential part of my function is helping them return home,” Powell said.

In March, Dartmouth President Philip Hanlon issued a statement that he was “deeply saddened by what we’ve found on our campus” and apologized for the college’s wrongful possession of the remains. He pledged “to take careful and meaningful action to address our situation and consult with the communities most directly impacted.”

The Department of Anthropology’s teaching collection is believed to come from several sources — bones purchased from biological supply companies; donated cadavers used by medical students; and archeological remains, some of which came from Native American burial mounds and were given by alumni. Until November, Dartmouth officials say they believed Native American bones had been removed from the school in the 1990s.

“Nobody had really taken the time or the effort to fully document what we had. This was around a time where our whole discipline was beginning to reflect a little more deeply on what it meant to be in the care of, or caring for human remains,” said DeSilva, the anthropology department’s chairman.

DeSilva acknowledged mistakes in documenting Native American remains, but said they weren’t malicious and that although no one was to blame, he hopes the most recent discovery will force a reckoning over past practices.

Along with working to return the Native American remains, the college is reevaluating its whole collection of human remains and plans to “build an ethically sourced collection that complies with legal standards” to be used in osteology — the study of bones and skeletal systems.

The college is also working to repair the relationship with Native students and alumni, starting with a March meeting in which Hanlon apologized. The school also worked to accommodate Native students who were uncomfortable going into Silsby. Many Native Americans believe it is taboo to speak about the dead or be near them.

Last month, a Navajo medicine man held a cleansing ceremony at several locations on campus, including Silsby.

The discovery has spotlighted Dartmouth’s relationship with its Native students, who represent about 1% of the 4,458 students. Though the school was formed to teach Native students, it wasn’t until 1972 that the college created one of the first Native programs in the country. Still, the college has had to confront symbols of insensitivity that lingered on campus, including in 2018 when it announced it would move into storage a set of murals that offended Native Americans.

Shawn Attakai, co-president of the Native American Alumni Association of Dartmouth, said he was disappointed about the discovery and sad about the possibility that they could be from his own Navajo Nation, where he is a tribal lawyer. But Attakai also said he was not surprised.

“Native Americans have a history of injustices in this country starting from it’s founding all the way to the present,” said Attakai.

Johnson-Jennings appreciates the efforts, but said justice requires a person or entity to be held accountable for the remains having been mislabeled for so long.

“It was disappointing that it went on for so long and does feel a little bit sad that the college was not able to find that mistake and find out that they were mislabeled before,” she said. “That’s a mistake that us Natives are paying for, the tribes that those ancestors belong to are paying for.”

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Israel insists it is doing all it can to protect civilians in Gaza and denies genocide charges

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1 day ago

May 17, 2024

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Israel insists it is doing all it can to protect civilians in Gaza and denies genocide charges

Israel strongly denied charges of genocide on Friday, telling the United Nations’ top court it was doing everything it could to protect the civilian population during its military operation in Gaza.

The International Court of Justice wrapped up a third round of hearings on emergency measures requested by South Africa, which says Israel’s military incursion in the southern city of Rafah threatens the “very survival of Palestinians in Gaza” and has asked the court to order a cease-fire.

Tamar Kaplan-Tourgeman, one of Israel’s legal team, defended the country’s conduct, saying it had allowed in fuel and medication to the beleaguered enclave.

“Israel takes extraordinary measures in order to minimize the harm to civilians in Gaza,” she told The Hague-based court.

A protester shouting “Liars” briefly interrupted Kaplan-Tourgeman’s final remarks. The hearing was paused for less than a minute while security guards escorted a woman from the public gallery.

South Africa told the court on Thursday that the situation in the beleaguered enclave has reached “a new and horrific stage” and urged judges to order a half to Israeli military operations. The court was holding a third round of hearings on emergency measures requested by South Africa since it first filed its genocide case at the end of last year.

According to the latest request, South Africa says Israel’s military incursion in Rafah threatens the “very survival of Palestinians in Gaza.” In January, judges ordered Israel to do all it can to prevent death, destruction and any acts of genocide in Gaza, but the panel stopped short of ordering an end to the military offensive. Judges will now deliberate on the request and are expected to issue a decision in the next weeks.

ICJ judges have broad powers to order a cease-fire and other measures, though the court doesn’t have its own enforcement apparatus. A 2022 order by the court demanding that Russia halt its full-scale invasion of Ukraine has so far gone unheeded.

Most of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million people have been displaced since fighting began.

The war began with a Hamas attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7 in which Palestinian militants killed around 1,200 people and took about 250 hostages. More than 35,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war, Gaza’s Health Ministry says, without distinguishing between civilians and combatants in its count.

South Africa initiated proceedings in December 2023 and sees the legal campaign as rooted in issues central to its identity. Its governing party, the African National Congress, has long compared Israel’s policies in Gaza and the occupied West Bank to its own history under the apartheid regime of white minority rule, which restricted most Blacks to “homelands.” Apartheid ended in 1994.

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Ukraine braces for ‘heavy battles’ as Putin says Russia carving out Kharkiv buffer zone

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1 day ago

May 17, 2024

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Ukraine braces for 'heavy battles' as Putin says Russia carving out Kharkiv buffer zone

Ukraine’s top commander warned on Friday of “heavy battles” looming on the war’s new front in the northeastern Kharkiv region as Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow was carving out a “buffer zone” in the area.

Russian forces attacked the Kharkiv region’s north last Friday, making inroads of up to 10 kilometres (6 miles) and unbalancing Kyiv’s outnumbered troops who are trying to hold the line over a sprawling front nearly 27 months since the full-scale invasion.

Colonel-General Oleksandr Syrskyi said the attack had expanded the area of hostilities by around 70km and that Russia had launched its incursion ahead of schedule when “it noticed the deployment of our forces”.

“We understand there will be heavy battles and that the enemy is preparing for that,” the head of the Ukrainian armed forces wrote in a statement on the Telegram app.

Speaking during a state visit to China, Putin said Moscow’s forces were creating a “buffer zone”to protect Russian border regions, but that capturing the city of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest, was not part of the current plan.

The Russian leader told a news conference the assault was a response to Kyiv’s shelling of Russian border regions such as Belgorod.

“Civilians are dying there. It’s obvious. They are shooting directly at the city centre, at residential areas. And I said publicly that if this continues, we will be forced to create a security zone, a buffer zone. That is what we are doing,” Putin said.

Russian forces were able to advance 10 kilometres in one place, but Ukrainian forces have “stabilised” the front, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told Ukrainian media outlets in comments published on Friday.

HEAVIEST ASSAULTS IN EAST

Moscow’s forces are mounting their heaviest assaults in the eastern Donetsk region, according to data compiled by the Ukrainian General Staff, which said the eastern Pokrovsk front had faced the most regular assaults in recent days.

In his comments, Syrskyi said Ukrainian forces were preparing their defensive lines for a possible new Russian assault on the Sumy region, which would mark another front more than a hundred kilometres to the north of Kharkiv.

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Four dead in New Caledonia riots, France declares state of emergency

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3 days ago

May 16, 2024

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Four dead in New Caledonia riots, France declares state of emergency

France declared a state of emergency on the Pacific island of New Caledonia on Wednesday after three young indigenous Kanak and a police official were killed in riots over electoral reform.

The state of emergency, which entered into force at 5 am local time (1800 GMT), gives authorities additional powers to ban gatherings and forbid people from moving around the French-ruled island.

Police reinforcements adding 500 officers to the 1,800 usually present on the island, have been sent after rioters torched vehicles and businesses and looted stores. Schools have been shut and there is already a curfew in the capital.

Rioting broke out over a new bill, adopted by lawmakers in Paris on Tuesday, that will let French residents who have lived in New Caledonia for 10 years vote in provincial elections – a move some local leaders fear will dilute the Kanak vote.

“No violence will be tolerated,” said Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, adding that the state of emergency “will allow us to roll out massive means to restore order.”

He later signed a decree declaring a state of emergency that will last for 12 days and announced that French soldiers would be used to secure New Caledonia’s main port and airport.

Authorities also decided to ban video app TikTok, which the government during a bout of riots on France’s mainland last summer said helped rioters organise and amplified the chaos, attracting troublemakers to the streets.

TikTok could not immediately be reached for comment.

Earlier in the day, a spokesperson for New Caledonia’s President Louis Mapou said three young indigenous Kanak had died in the riots. The French government later said a 24-year-old police official had died from a gunshot wound.

“He took off his helmet (to speak to residents) and he was shot right in the head,” Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said.

Noumea resident Yoan Fleurot told Reuters in a Zoom interview that he was staying at home out of respect for the nightly curfew and was very scared for his family.

“I don’t see how my country can recover after this”, Fleurot said, adding he carries a gun during the day when he goes out to film the rioters he called ‘terrorists’.

Police were outnumbered by protesters, locals told Reuters.

Electoral reform is the latest flashpoint in a decades-long tussle over France’s role in the mineral-rich island, which lies in the southwest Pacific, some 1,500 km (930 miles) east of Australia.

France annexed the island in 1853 and gave the colony the status of overseas territory in 1946. It has long been rocked by pro-independence movements.

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New Caledonia is the world’s No. 3 nickel miner and residents have been hit by a crisis in the sector, with one in five living under the poverty threshold.

“Politicians have a huge share of responsibility,” said 30-year-old Henri, who works in a hotel in Noumea. “Loyalist politicians, who are descendents of colonialists, say colonisation is over, but Kanak politicians don’t agree. There are huge economic disparities,” he said.

Henri, who declined to give his full name, said there was significant looting, with the situation most dangerous at night.

The French government has said the change in voting rules was needed so elections would be democratic.

But it said it would not rush calling a special congress of the two houses of parliament to rubber-stamp the bill and has invited pro- and anti-independence camps for talks in Paris on the future of the island, opening the door to a potential suspension of the bill.

The major pro-independence political group, Front de Liberation Nationale Kanak et Socialiste (FLNKS), which condemned the violence, said it would accept the offer of dialogue and was willing to work towards an agreement “that would allow New Caledonia to follow its path toward emancipation”.

Most residents were staying indoors.

Witness Garrido Navarro Kherachi said she moved to New Caledonia when she was eight years old, and has never been back to France. Although eligible to vote under the new rules, she says she won’t “out of respect for the Kanak people”.

“I don’t feel I know enough about the history of Caledonia and the struggle of the Kanak people to allow me to vote,” she said.

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