Research and/or Stewardship of Tribal Collections?

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Ideas, Ethical Ideals, and Museum Practice in North American Archaeological Collections" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Research and/or stewardship? Native American cultural materials excavated or collected by archaeologists, particularly at research universities, have focused on Western-defined “scientific” and educational values of these collections. Tribal members increasingly are challenging such ideas. They dispute that items of their cultural heritage are primarily objects of value because academics can derive scientific data from them. Archaeologists are taught the physical object itself is less important than what the object may tell us about the past. The National Register of Historic Places reinforces such perspectives with the archaeological criterion focusing on the extractive value of sites yielding information. Data recovery at the expense of protection is mitigation in CRM undertakings. But universities and museums now must operate in a world in which collections, like exhibits, may be seen as a source of community relationships and engagement. Additionally, they must adapt to collections being highly regulated. In California, for example, reforms to CalNAGPRA emphasize deference to tribal knowledge, potentially opening up the return of many collections that federal NAGPRA effectively excluded. As a member of a federally recognized tribe, RPA, former THPO and curator, I will discuss how tribal views of stewardship may alter the generations-accepted research paradigm.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Ideas, Ethical Ideals, and Museum Practice in North American Archaeological Collections   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 39498.0