Focus on outsiders. Amy plantation disaster capitalism. Fear is growing among native hawaiians that wealthy interest will seize land and Water Resources in this time of crisis on maui. As the death cap continues to rise. We will go to hawaii for the latest. Then teach no lies. We go to florida to speak with a historian who is leading the fight against the states new black history curriculum that claims black people benefited from being enslaved. And we will look at a shocking New Washington post expose revealing the smithsonian has a racial brain collection gathered in part by a racist anthropologist. There were children in the collection. There were men and women, fetuses. Many of them were Indigenous People, other people of color. Many of them did not have their identities actually recorded, partly because they were looked at as specimens. Amy all that and more, coming up. Welcome to democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. In canada, officials have declared a state of emergency in the British Columbia city of west kelowna as a wildfire tripled in size. Thousands have been evacuated. Meanwhile, Mass Evacuations continued in canadas Northwest Territories capital city of yellowknife where all 20,000 residents have been told to leave. It is quite scary because with the smoke, of course it is lightning up a little bit but the smoke was very thick this morning. I mean, it is not a good situation, thats for sure. Amy over 1000 active blazes are burning across canada in its worstever wildfire season. In hawaii, the head of mauis Emergency Management resigned citing health reasons, one week after the Deadly Wildfires started and one day after Herman Andaya defended not sounding sirens to warn people as the flames engulfed thousands of homes and businesses. Officials have now identified six victims as the death toll of 111 is expected to rise over the coming days. Meanwhile, concerns are mounting over climate gentrification in the tragedies wake. Many native hawaiians had already been priced out of their land due to a swelling housing crisis, with hawaii ranking as the most expensive state to rent or own a home in the u. S. Hawaiians and residents of hawaii have reported receiving predatory calls from developers seeking to buy their property. Hurricane hilary grew to a category 4 storm off the Pacific Coast of mexico and is expected to bring heavy downpours and flooding to parts of the u. S. Southwest and northwestern mexico this weekend. In Spains Canary islands, thousands have been evacuated as the tenerife wildfire continues to burn out of control. Tenerife, a popular vacation island, has seen higher than average temperatures this summer, much like the rest of spain and europe. Next week could bring more, possibly recordbreaking, extreme heat across the continent. President biden is hosting the first ever trilateral summit with leaders of japan and south korea at camp david. Beijing has bashed the summit as a mininato. Meanwhile, south korea warned north korea could launch another Intercontinental Ballistic Missile to protest the summit. An assessment by u. S. Intelligence predicts that ukraines counteroffensive will fail to reach the key southeastern city of melitopol. The Washington Post reported the news, which would mean ukraine will not achieve its goal of cutting off russias land bridge to crimea. It could also renew debate within the International Community over the billions of dollars in military assistance being sent to ukraine to fight russias invasion. In other news about the war, Chinese Defense minister li shangfu visited belarus on thursday, vowing to increase military cooperation with the russian ally. Meanwhile, belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko said thursday belarus is ready to use Nuclear Weapons from russia if it faces aggression. Around 1000 palestinians imprisoned by israel have launched an indefinite Hunger Strike to protest attacks by the israel prison service, which is overseen by farright National Security minister itamar bengvir. Prisoners have asked palestinians living in the occupied west bank to hold solidarity demonstrations. Meanwhile, israels deadly attacks on palestinians in the west bank continue. At least three people were killed this week, including a 16yearold boy. The family of 32year old mustafa alkastouni decried his killing as they accused Israeli Forces of shooting him dead even after he said hed surrender. Israeli forces then detonated explosives in his familys home. This is mustafa alkastounis mother. We looked and we saw they blew up the house in seconds. It was packed with israeli soldiers. They blew up our house. I wanted to go through the rubble but i could not. The young men helped me. I was looking for my son. I asked them to check under the rubble and they agreed. They told me he died. Amy in guatemala, voters are heading to the polls sunday for any highly anticipated president ial election runoff between progressive candidate Bernardo Arevalo and former first lady Sandra Torres. A new poll shows arevalo of the Semilla Party in the lead. Arevalo spoke to the Atlantic Council in july. What we have seen after what has been in the streets is there is a rekindling of hope and confidence and that people are actually believing that week and we can advance and get rid of this corrupt political system. Amy his opponent Sandra Torres has faced corruption charges and is backed by guatemalas business and political elite. Meanwhile, ecuador is also gearing up for a snap president ial election this sunday after current president Guillermo Lasso dissolved congress in may to avoid his impeachment. At least three political leaders have been killed in recent weeks, including president ial candidate fernando villavicencio. This is progressive president ial frontrunner Luisa Gonzalez of the Citizen Revolution Movement party. They want to fill us with hopelessness so they can bury us in sadness and pain. That way they can immobilize us. But we will react firmly and strongly by saying no. Amy in pakistan, more than 140 people were arrested and over 6000 police and paramilitary troops were deployed in the eastern city of jaranwala in Punjab Province after a group of muslims torched churches and vandalized homes and businesses in a violent spree that has left the minority Christian Community reeling. The violence was reportedly in retaliation for the desecration of a quran by two christian men. This is a jaranwala man whose house was destroyed. When i saw my house, i felt a jolt in my heart. I and neatly came out of my house and sat down. We have not committed any crime. This is a grave injustice toward us. Amy the head of the provincial government mohsin naqvi vowed to compensate and restore victims for their losses. Meanwhile, muslim faith leaders joined their christian counterparts in calling for accountability and protection for vulnerable minorities. This is muslim cleric Tahir Mehmood ashrafi. Mr. Chief justice of pakistan, the nation demand to establish a court right by the church where the holy cross was vandalized and you conduct a trial within a month. The nation once the culprits to be punished. Amy back in the United States, donalds legal team has asked to push back his january 6 trial to april 2026, citing the overwhelming amount of discovery evidence theyll need to sort through. The Justices Department has requested the trial start the first week of january 2024. Trump remains the frontrunner for the republican president ial nomination as he faces four indictments. In georgia, officials are investigating after Trump Supporters threatened and doxed grand jurors who voted to indict trump over his efforts to overturn his 2020 defeat. Meanwhile, trump has canceled a planned press conference monday, where he claimed he would present evidence exonerating him from the charges. In related news, prosecutors are seeking sentences of 33 years in prison for the two former leaders of the proud boys, Enrique Tarrio and joe biggs. They were found guilty in may of seditious conspiracy over the january 6 capitol assault. It would be the longest prison terms for anyone involved in the insurrection. In canada, at least three land defenders were arrested tuesday after officials resumed enforcement of a Court Injunction used to crack down on activists at the indigenousled blockade at the fairy creek watershed on vancouver island. This comes as over 140 court cases against antilogging protesters were recently dropped by British Columbia authorities as it was found police didnt properly read or explain the Court Injunction to them. The injunction was first granted to logging company tealjones in april 2021 and was lifted a few months later after a court said it violated the Civil Liberties of protesters and infringed on press freedom. And a new study shows latinx children living in states with antiimmigrant laws are more likely to experience Mental Health and chronic physical health issues. The study says racist laws that make it difficult to access healthcare, affordable housing, education, and stable employment have contributed to worsening asthma, diabetes, and other physical ailments, as well as severe Mental Health conditions, including depression, among latinx children and teens ages three to 17. Among the worst states are alaska, alabama, and nebraska. And those are some of the headlines. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. We begin todays show in hawaii, where the death toll from the maui fires stands at 111 but as many as 1000 people remain unaccounted for. As the search for bodies continues, we look today at what some native hawaiians are calling plantation disaster capitalism a growing fear that wealthy interests will seize land and Water Resources in this time of crisis. The writer naomi klein and the hawaiian law professor Kapuaala Sproat write about plantation disaster capitalism in a new article in the guardian. They write its a name that speaks to contemporary forms of neocolonialism and climate profiteering, like the Real Estate Agents who have been coldcalling lahaina residents who have lost everything to the fire and prodding them to sell their Ancestral Lands rather than wait for compensation. But it also places these moves inside the long and ongoing history of settler colonial resource theft and trickery, making clear that while disaster capitalism might have some modern disguises, its a very old tactic. A tactic that native hawaiians have a great deal of experience resisting. Those were the words of naomi klein and Kapuaala Sproat in the guardian. Well, on thursday i spoke to professor sproat from her home on the island of kauai. She is a professor of law at ka huli ao native hawaiian law center. She also codirects the native hawaiian rights clinic at the university of hawaii at manoa school of law. I asked her to describe what is happening on maui. Mahola. Things are pretty brittle right now in west maui. People are still trying desperately to find ways forward in this disaster of proportions. I am not on maui. I am a couple of islands over. I have not been there since the fire, but that is also absolutely appropriate. People who dont need to be there should stay away and support from afar, regardless of what that looks like whether that means writing Opinion Pieces or sending money, whatever is the best people in support from where they are, i think is really important. A word from the folks on the ground is people are struggling. Our community has rallied in amazing ways and i think that is part of the message we want to get out, that lahaina strong and maui strong are more than things. People are not waiting on the amount or even on the state or county. Relief organizations are springing up in peoples homes and garages. Supplies are coming in by boat and vehicle and the roads are open. There is a lot of uncertainty. People are concerned because what i see in the midst of this attention and focus and resources being streamed towards maui, there is a naked power grab and land and water grab that is also underway. There has been talk about folks getting offers on their homes. I know from friends that is happening. As i mentioned, theres also water grab in the works and the discussion around this makes me fear for the future of lahaina and whether or not it will be one that includes native hawaiians and other local people or whether the build back will be insiders. Amy what does a land grab mean . To be clear, im not on the ground but what i understand for people who are there is there are realtors and others who are making offers to people in their most desperate time of need, when people are desperate for funding and other resources to try to build back their lives of people getting offers on their ancestral homes, lands when we talked about Ancestral Lands and our connection to place, we talked in generations and hundreds of years. Our native clinic has been on the ground working with Community Members for several years now. Many of our Community Members have a longstanding relationships to place. It is some of these Community Members getting offers on their homes at this most difficult time was to put in my is completely appropriate. Amy you talk about plantation disaster capitalism. Explain. Plantation disaster capitalism i think is, unfortunately, the perfect term for what is going on in west maui right now. The plantation, large lighted interest that have control over not just a land but much of the resources for the last several centuries are using this opportunity using this time of tremendous trauma for the people of maui to swoop in and get past the law, basically. Theyre using the emergency proclamation the government put in place the day after the fires ravaged lahaina, and theyre using this as an opportunity to try to get their way, especially with respect to Water Resources, something they could not achieve when the law for hawaiis water code was in place. Amy talk more about the water grab. Water is life. It is one of our most important resources. There are many people who would say freshwater is our most important resource. It is what enables our people to be able to not just survive but thrive in hawaii for more than a millennium. In lahaina in particular, it is special for people who come on vacation and no but for the people of this community, lahaina was the seat of the hawaiian kingdom. It was the capital before the island before oahu. Part of the reason lahaina was such an important place was because of the abundance of resources and abundance of Water Resources in particular. Before the arrival of europeans, right now lahaina is on was like a dry desert area. But when it was managed by native hawaiians, it was abundant with water and other resources. What happen was with the arrival of plantation interest, those water especially after the capital was moved to oahu, those resources were grabbed up by land and plantation interest. Sugar plantations and later those resources were diverted to support other kinds of development, including Luxury Residential Development and even to support hotels in some instances. What happened is, lahaina was taken by these corporations. What we also know is part of the reason for this extraordinary tragedy in west maui is also because there has been more than a century of plantation water mismanagement. It is because of extractive water policies where water has not remained on the land, that created the tinderbox and this unfortunate situation of the tragic fire that took place earlier this month. Amy you have raised the issue of the governor wasting no time in issuing emergency proclamations as the wildfires continued to burn, which suspended a series of laws including hawaii state water code. Can you talk about why this is significant . Spotify is so disappointing part of what is so disappointing, this naked power grab because it is more than just a water grab, it is also a power grab come is there specifically usurping both the law. More than that, usurping longstanding and broadbased Community Interest in support for a more proactive Water Management and Water Management that will ensure the resources benefit the people. So to provide some context, for several years, hawaii state Water Commission has proactively attempted to create what we call Water Management designation. It is a fancy term, an additional layer that goes over an area where we know Water Resources are threatened. Once that happens, there is an additional layer that allows the Water Commission to revisit allocations in how water is used and distributed. This is important because in hawaii, we have a Public Trust Doctrine that means our Water Resources are managed for present and future generations and cannot be owned by any individual. The problem is despite what we call the black letter law, in small towns like lahaina, companies with a lot of influence have been able to maintain control of the Water Resources even when their interest like native hawaiian families that have higher call or higher water right according to the black letter law. Part of the situation is that because of this long history of struggle, native faux wines and people across the Community Came forward and participated in public hearings before our state Water Commission. Call for more proactive Water Management. In june 20 22, there were successful in achieving this Water Management area designation for lahaina. That means additional permit protections were put in place and many folks who have superior rights come whose rights have been ignored, were able to begin a permitting process. Unfortunately, those existing applications were due on monday, august 7, and the file fire ravaged lahaina on tuesday, august 8. On wednesday, the Governors Office issued these emergency proclamations which suspended the water code. So despite this huge effort to try to put this additional protection in place, which was predictably opposed by industry industry interest, they were unsuccessful. What they were unable to accomplish legally, they were able to accomplish the support of the governor and the emergency proclamation. It is unfortunate that is why what is happening right now epitomizes plantation disaster capitalism. Because here we have a handful of incredibly privileged large landed interest using this terrible tragedy to displace and push through laws they were unable to secure when hawaii state water code was in place. Amy President Biden is coming to maui on monday. What message do you feel he needs to hear and what do you want to see the federal government do right now . I understand President Biden will be coming into maui shortly. I hope what he will see and what he will learn and what you will support his the resilience of a people who are on the ground in maui right now the Community Members who are doing so much with so little. I hope you will see the resilient spirit of our Community Members and your tremendous need because we need lots of support from the federal government in a whole range of areas. I hope you will also see some of the political shenanigans that are taking place and understand if we really want to protect the things that make hawaii truly special, we cant just throw out all of the laws and other things that help to protect our resources when disaster strikes. We as a Community Need to come together and lean into each other and really look to and embrace the principles that have enabled us to thrive here in hawaii for a millennium. Amy Kapuaala Sproat is a professor of law at ka huli ao native for wind law center. She also codirects the native hawaiian rights clinic at the university of hawaii at manoas school of law. We will into the guardian article she cowrote with naomi klein headlined what was there no water to fight the fire in maui . Coming up, teach no lies. We will speak with a historian leading the fight in florida against the new black history curriculum that claims black people benefited from being enslaved. Back in 30 seconds. [music break] amy kualana na pua covered by rufus wainwright. The independent song of hawaii translates as famous are the flowers. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. We turn now to florida, where republican Governor Ron Desantis is losing ground as support for his 2024 president ial bid slips to its lowest level this year. Students in miami returned to School Thursday one day after a teach no lies march to the office of the Miamidade County school board to protest what many call floridas racist new curriculum standards for teaching black history. The measure is part of a broader push by desantis to root out ideas he says are woke. The new curriculum teaches that some black people benefited from being enslaved because they learned useful skills. Protesters wednesday were joined by some members of the Teamsters National black caucus, who were holding a conference in the city, and by Tennessee State representative justin pearson, who was recently voted back into office after he was expelled along with representative justin jones for protesting republicans failure to pass gun control laws after the Covenant School mass shooting in nashville. This is pearson. There were no benefits for people being enslaved. Being raped, having our children stolen from you, being denied the right to read. Those were not benefits for our ancestors. Amy the florida education association, Teachers Union representing about 150 thousand teachers, called it a disservice to florida students and are a big step backward for a state that has required teaching africanamerican history since anti94. For more, were joined by marvin dunn, who helped organize the protest and leading teach no lies tours that take teachers and young people to places like rosewood, florida, the site of a 1923 massacre of black residents at the hands of a white mob. Many eyewitnesses say that death toll was higher. Violence began when a white woman falsely accused a black and of assault. I the time the massacre ended, every building in rosewood except one had burned down. No long Person Agency investigated the massacre. No one was ever charged with crimes. Marvin dunn is a Professor Emeritus at Florida International university, author of numerous books, including the history of florida through black eyes. In the book come he writes almost all of floridas painful racial past has been whitewashed, marginalized or buried intentionally. But i was born here. I know floridas flowers and her warts. Professor dunn is cofounder of the miami center for racial justice. Welcome to democracy now you are one of those that love the march this week and a rep before kids go back to school. Talk about the new curriculum that governor desantis, president ial candidate desantis, is pushing and that the teachers are forced to teach. Looks first, thank you very much for having me on. It is a disaster. It cannot be implemented. Teachers in florida dont know how to implement this law. We are now in a confused, demoralized state of education in florida. This man has done the most damage to education in the state that i can imagine. We are trying to figure out what to do next in order to have teachers not arrested for not implementing the standards. Were trying to get certification from the department of education. Basically, it is just a mess in florida. Amy you are doing something very unusual. You are taking people to sites of massacres and you are teaching on the ground. Talk about what you are teaching and how these stories are changed. For example, with the curriculum saying you have to talk about how slavery actually benefited the enslaved. We are still trying to figure out how slaves had personal benefits when they were unable to be considered persons. There were property. How can a chair or cow couch have personal benefits. The very idea of trying to suggest having teachers teach that enslaved people had some benefits of being enslaved. Even if the 1 of enslaved who were free and some marketable skill, what about the 99 who basically had no skills at all . What about the millions of slaves who died before emancipation . What personal benefit did they receive . What desantis is trying to do with this issue and others is to equivocate evil. Every country had slaves. Slavery was in africa and china and asia. Why does he want teachers to teach on slavery of other places . Americas just another country that had slavery, no different from anybody else. But america was different. America was the only country that had slavery in which the enslaved were not people but property. That was a new american unique american contribution. We are try to correct these lies and make sure teachers are not teaching these lies. But it is an uphill struggle here in florida. Amy professor dunn come on sunday you posted a photo on social media of yourself posing with your fist in the air in front of your rosewood neighbors confederate flag. You wrote in rosewood today in front of my neighbors property. He just got convicted of six counts of hate crimes from when he tried to kill me and a group that was visiting my property. He was mad because we parked on his side of the road. I was standing on his side of the road today. Can you describe this attack, what happened to you, your son, and others . Certainly. I am the only black person who owns land in rosewood today. Rosewood is now community a very wealthy people, five acre estates. I have pristine land not touched since 1923. With the arrival of the 100th recognition of the advance, i went to my property to meet with contractors about clearing the property so we could have an event on the site. This was in september. As we were leaving, and i had to whiten when we met with to talk about two white men to talk with, as im leaving, my neighbor across the street, have owned this property since 2008 and we have never spoke, he rolls up in his white truck with big wheels and has his window down and says, whats going on out here . I said, well, this is my are pretty this is my property. That is as far as i got. And he said, that is your property, why you parking on the side of the rug . I said, this is county road, we will park where i was. His vehicle spins around and starts yelling i will repeat what he says but the nword was used again and again. He says to one of the white men, youre just as bad as the n word then he comes out at full speed and almost kills us. We call the police and they arrested him a few days later and charged him using his tripe as a weapon. When i got back home to miami, i called the fbi and reported this as a hate crime. I must say even though you hear a lot of attacks on the department of justice and what have you, they were on the job. The fbi took the case, this man was tried a week or so ago and gains for, florida, by a jury of 11 people, no blacks, and he was found guilty of six counts of a hate crime. He is facing 10 years on each count. Wednesday, yesterday come he was tried on the state charge. Im not sure what the result of that was. This judgment is facing a lot of time in prison for what happened that day. Amy you want to build a peace house, and educational hub for students to learn about lords history of racial violence . Are you still going to do that . Is he out free until he is sentenced . He is out. We were at our property this past week and with 30 teachers. We hired a judgment is sit there for the time we were there. I have to do that to assure we wont have the problems with this man. We will be using that five acre site to make a park in memory of rosewood. Were going to rebuild the Old Railroad Depot and use it as a peace house where people can come, walk that bloody ground come experience their ancestors, talk about peace, in this place where very very troubling thing happen. I dont believe america is as racially divided as desantis and the maga republicans believe. I dont think most americans, white, black, republican, or democrat want to see it intrude into personal life. That is why we are going to build that house, the Railroad Depot and make it into a place of peace so we can really bring our country together. Folks want to come and sit and talk and work out problems. That is what we intend to do that. Amy professor dunn, Florida Governor desantis has conducted a conservative takeover of the progressive new college. Many professors have left. You are going to be teaching a black history class there this fall. Can you talk about what you will be teaching and how that fits into or dont you care about the stop woke act . Were going to be teaching institutional racism in florida. We will be teaching the very black history desantis does not want us to teach. Were going to take students on the same tours even have plans to bring them to new york. A nonprofit is raising money to support new college and support these tours were doing. Desantis says college is where woke goes to die. This is a very small college, 700 students. This is a place that desantis chose to fight woke. What were finding is he is killing the college. People are leaving. I have offered to teach for free. I will do it if i have to do it in the parking lot. Amy can you tell us what happened in one of the places you bring students, teachers, professors to . Thank you for asking that question. It is one of the two places [indiscernible] there requiring teachers to teach a lie. They are requiring them to teach there was black violence. Let me tell you, in 1920, a black man try to vote. He was turned away from the polls, a mob formed. They come to his house to confront him. They surround his house and start shooting into it. They killed two mob were killed by the family fire. That is the official report. But it is blamed on perry. 300 black people killed. I took teachers last saturday to the spot where they are buried. This mass grave. We stood and pray and sang. The other lie is about rosewood. This young man and is the mob comes to his house and his mother goes to the window and tries to convince them to go away. They shoot and kill her dead. Two white men come onto his front porch and he shot them dead. That is black on white racial violence . This is the kind of thing we are fighting in florida where desantis is trying to make it appear there is evil on the sides and we are trying to find that in florida. Amy you are also one of eight plaintiffs in a lawsuit over desantis law that also applies to Public University professors. Can you explain that . Yes. Desantis wants to shut down discussion florida universities about race. He is said we cannot use certain terms. I teach a course on black for history. Miami and ford were both bathed and racism as they were born, as they came to be. Business, please come education, entertainment, Church Everything was based on race but we are not allowed to say that . We are not allowed to speak about racial violence because some white people might be uncomfortable if we talk about those things . What about black kids that are made to feel uncomfortable were talking about things that might offend them . What were seeing is a very confused attack, but the ultimate is very clear. Suppress education that deals with racial history, suppress discussions about institutional racism and keep our educational system based upon, basically, christian nationalist principles and beliefs. Amy we just have 30 seconds. Youre wearing a teacher t tshirt. Who had that flame that burns in you . My mother. She is long gone now. She taught us, my Four Brothers and me, you tell the truth, you teach the truth, dont promote lies. You are an honest person. I got that from my mom and my dad as well. Amy marvin dunn, thank you for being with us, Professor Emeritus at Florida International university, author of numerous books, including the history of florida through black eyes. Cofounder of the miami center for racial justice. Joining us from palmetto bay, miami. Next up, we look at a shocking New Washington post expose revealing the smithsonian has a racial brain collection gathered in part by racist anthropologist. Back in 30 seconds. [music break] amy when Seasons Change by curtis mayfield. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. We end todays looking at a Major Investigation by the Washington Post that revealed the Smithsonian Institution holds a socalled racial brain collection that contains 255 brains gathered in the first half of the 20th century. Much of it was collected at the behest of a racist anthropologist who was trying to scientifically prove the superiority of white people. An investigation by the Washington Post found most of the brains in the smithsonian collection were removed from dead black and Indigenous People and other people of color, often taken without consent from their families. In a moment, we will be joined by the two reporters behind this investigation, Nicole Dungca and claire healy. But we begin with an excerpt of a video produced by the Washington Post. In a cemetery in st. Louis, at least six filipinos are buried. They died at the 1904 worlds fair. They started searching for their graves in 2021 after reading about them in archival newspapers. I think they deserve to be remembered. This investigation began in february 2022 when i came across an instagram. I was led to write about her work to find the places where these people were buried. Then she shared a record with me , four this people had their brains removed taken to the smithsonian. Once i heard about the filipino aspect of the story, i got really interested in working with claire on this. Close the discovery would inspire a yearlong investigation into the smithsonians collections of human remains. I had already been researching filipinos that were part of this exhibit, like put on exhibition, who had died at the 1904 worlds fair. I came across a catalog online from the sony and. They had listings of things they had acquired from st. Louis either during or after the fair. I asked the smithsonian, how many brains do you have and why . They sent me a spreadsheet of all of the brains they have with locality and what is called a succession number. I went to the archives and took each of these numbers and got the original cards. These are the cards that are filed away every time a new body part was entered into a collection at the smithsonian. We built up a database. There were children in the collection. There were men and women, fetuses. Many of them were Indigenous People, other people of color. Many of them did not have their identities actually recorded partly because they were looked at as specimens. The smithsonian currently has 255 human brains in a Storage Facility in maryland. Records suggest only four of the brains were collected with consent. Amy that was a video report by the Washington Post to accompany its major new investigation revealing the smithsonians racial brain collection. While the post was reporting on the story, the smithsonian formed a task force to develop a policy to address the future of human remains held within its museums collections. The smithsonian secretary lonnie bunch said at the smithsonian, we recognize certain collection practices of our past were unethical. What was once standard in the museum field is no longer acceptable. We acknowledge and apologize for the pain our historical practices have caused people, their families, and their communities. Lonnie bunch is also the former head of the Smithsonians National museum of africanamerican history and culture. Joining us now are the Washington Post reporters Nicole Dungca and claire healy. We welcome you to democracy now lay out this scope of this project and from where you were speaking in this video report. Thank you for having us. To start, we started looking at the brain collection which has 255 brains. That is just what they have today. We found evidence they had 268 overall and some were cremated and four were repatriated. That is just a fraction of what they have in human remains total. They have 30,700 sets of human remains. To give you a sense of what that means, each of those numbers is a set of human remains not an individual. So the number of people who are in this collection is higher than that 30,000. Amy so talk and the 30,000 comes from at least 80 countries around the world. Amy name the anthropologist. Talk about his motivations and where he went to gather these skulls, overwhelmingly not given consent by families. He was the head curator of the division of physical anthropology at the smithsonian. When he started in 1903, he set out creating a Massive Network that will collect these remains. He would send people to south africa, to the philippines to gather remains for him and send them back to the smithsonian. He believed and white superiority. When he was collecting these remains, he wanted to Research Race and a physical difference as he saw between races but also looking to human origins. 15,000 are estimated to be native american. His studies would come consistently back to looking at race. Amy you talk about he is not referring to his own research as he tries to layout the basis of the theory of white superiority. He was just spouting that standard eugenics at the time. We could not find actual studies he did on these brains. A lot of he did a study on brains did not put out anything on comparing race in the way he said he wanted to. But he would still answer letters and tell newspapers that white brains show some superiority to black brains but would not reference any studies he did. As far as we could tell, he did not do those studies. Amy i want to bring Nicole Dungca into this conversation, reporter on this incredible investigation. You are also president of the Asian American journalist association. And you are a filipinoamerican. Talk about the filipino brains in this collection and how you got involved with this story. Thank you so much for having me posted as we said in the video, when i heard about the filipinos involved in this collection, i immediately knew we needed to make this a big story. That is because so much of the history between the philippines and the u. S. , many people dont know. So four of these brains had come from filipinos who had been brought to the 1904 worlds fair in st. Louis. There there have been what was essentially a human zoo, Living Museum exhibit where people would flock to st. Louis and see how indigenous filipinos and other filipinos were living. They lived in mock villages. They would do their daily chores and people would say these people were primitive or savages. Fair officials pressured indigenous filipinos who lived in a region that would pressure these indigenous filipinos to eat dogs even though that happen very rarely back home. So that exacerbated the stereotype that lingers to this day. What we found is that some of these filipinos died while they were at the fair or on the way here from the philippines. What ales hrdlicka new is he could go there and take some of their brain. What we found is ales hrdlicka went to st. Louis in 1904 and he autopsied two filipinos and two other filipinos had their brains sent to him that her. One of them was likely a woman named mauda and we created an illustrative narrative about her life and her death with illustrations from a philippinebased test artist. We wanted to show that from the perspective of the filipinos. He saw many articles where they were referring to them as savages, talking about their customs, that they were very strange. We wanted to create something that would show the perspectives of the filipinos because so many of those perspectives had gotten lost. Amy just to be clear, the u. S. Had occupied the philippines from 1898 for the next half century until 1946. Yes. I think the previous segments talked about being able to teach people the history some of the dark chapters of the u. S. History. A lot of people dont know the philippines was a territory and that this was something that really affected how people saw filipinos and William Howard taft was using the fair basically to show the u. S. Was good for the philippines and that was partly why they were bringing these indigenous filipinos they were saying, look how we can help them. Look how they are primitive. Amy can you tell us, claire, about mary sara . Her family indigenous to northern scandinavia . Mary sara was an 18yearold woman from alaska. She died in seattle in 1933 of tuberculosis. She had gone to seattle with her mother for her mother to get cataract surgery and the doctor doing the surgery on her mother then took her bright and send it to the smithsonian. He sent a telegram to ales hrdlicka sing if you want a brain, i can get one free today. When we reached out to her first cousin in alaska, she had no idea this had happened. Amy lets talk about what is going to happen now. I just read a quote from the head of the smithsonian. Lonnie bunche was the founding director of the Smithsonians National museum of africanamerican history and culture and then became the head of the whole smithsonian, saying this is unethical. Talk about how the smithsonian has responded over this year and what they have set up. He did apologize for how this remains were collected in the past. He has put together a task force that has already met three times to try to look at these human remains and how to return them and how to move forward. He says hes going to look to the task force to decide the best way moving forward, whether that is contacting individual families or doing some sort of mass graves, is what he said, in arlington cemetery. He will look at what the Task Force Wants him to do. The smithsonian has reached out to the embassy of the philippines to repatriate the filipino remains. After we started reporting. Conversations are underway to look into repatriating those remains. Amy Nicole Dungca, where are the remains being held now . Our medical professionals able to access this . And also the fact this is global. Youre not just talking about skulls and brains from the United States, and what this means come how the International Community has responded . They are being held right now in the Museum Support center of the Smithsonian Institution. That is in maryland. In the beginning of the year, Lonnie Bunche the third, the secretary of the smithsonian, restricted access to human remains but will what we do know is the ability to be researching some of these remains there are still anthropologist who would be able to access this but they are creating policies that will be able to say, this is what you can do in terms of collecting human remains, it has to be consensual, or this is the kind of research that you will be able to do. Amy claire healy, can you talk about the significance of the largest group, black people, the skulls and fetuses of black people, how they were classified, which makes it more difficult to repatriate them . Right. The only law in place that the smithsonian is under is the nmna act that requires the smithsonian to send out inventories of the remains to federally recognized tribes. That does not cover other populations and demographics within the collection and does not cover black americans. A lot of the black americans whose remains are this collection, their families would have no idea and the smithsonian is not obligated to reach out to any of them or even release publicly any inventory. We dont really have a sense of how theyre going to move forward in informing families, and looking how to address those remains, but we also know black americans was a population that hrdlicka specifically targeted. He talks about that in his writings and his manual in 1904 that he puts out in looking for human remains. As we know from the articles, the largest racial groups in the United States that had brains taken was black americans. It is unclear what the smithsonian will do about that. Amy we will continue to follow this story as im sure both of you will. Claire healy and Nicole Dungca of the Washington Post. We will link to your remarkable investigative series revealing the smithsonians racial brain collection. That does it for our show. Democracy now is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the closed captioning. Email your comments to outreach democracynow. Org or mail them to democracy now p. O. Box 693 new york, new york 10013. [captioning made possible by democracy now ]
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