History of the universal art museum. We talked about the ethics of especially of historical. We looked at some of the oldest restitution and discussions like the parthenon marbles. We talked the problem of antiquities that have been looted in recent years and that end up in public museums and weve talked about calls to decolonize the museum today were going to take a special case a native american Cultural Heritage primarily in the United States and canada for a little bit in. As always, we approach these issues from the point of view of art history, museums, studies, human rights. There are many other ways of approaching these issues. So first, a reminder that wherever we are in the americas are always on native land. If you go to this wonderful website, you can put your zip code and you can discover a native map of your area. You can figure out where you are from a native. And here we are. This is the bay area and we are somewhere over here on the historic territory of the part when people so this raises the question, how did the state that we live in california and the United States come to be in these areas . What is the history of native american presence in the past and in the present . What are the painful histories of native american dispossession, colonialism, acquisition, the land erasure of culture, displacing peoples treaties made and broken, and genocide, as in the words of gavin newsom, our governor, who recognize formally in 2019 that native americans in had been subjected to genocide and its important to use the right words, though the federal government does not always use this word. So we have a long and painful when it comes to talking about native american objects in the museum. And well try to that history. So what are we talking about when we talk about native american as an example, showing you a storage box by a linguist artist in present alaska today at the metropolitan museum of art made in late 19th century in general. A lot of the case studies that were interested in relate to objects that were not made for purchase by outsiders and not made to be displayed as art in museums. They were objects like this storage box was made for everyday use by specific individuals in families. Some of the objects were going to see were sacred objects used in specific rituals and activities in specific circumstances and not always meant to be seen. Just anyone. So these are objects raise very specific kind of issues. How were they collect it, as youre reading the article by brillo and phillips details, the vast majority of native american objects in private public collections today are the legacy of the high period colonialism that lasted from about 1830 to 1930. So in about 100 years, an enormous amount of native American Heritage was in collected through means and concentrated public collections in private hands. Native american objects were not only created in one period of time and frozen in space. Frozen in time. Throughout this period, native americans continued to create new kinds of objects, incorporating ideas influences, motifs, reactions to kinds of experiences. They had this beaded bag from the late 19th century today in the metropolitan museum of art was by a group, lakota, probably in north dakota in the United States, and probably when this community was forced to live on a reservation. So were see, i just want to make the point that when were talking native american objects, were talking about a continued tradition that is constantly renewed constantly changes, not frozen in time. But of course, the impression of frozen in time is the impression that you in the kinds Traditional Museum displays of native american objects for example im showing you the northwest coast hall of the American Museum of Natural History in new york, an instition talked about in the past when we talked about calls to decolonize the museum. So in the early 20th century, the Cultural Heritage of northwest coast native communities was present very much in displays like. This where a numbeof different objects here were seeing totem poles, were sing and raising canoe, were seeing masks in objects of everyday use in ass cabinets. All of these objects are united and put together in one exhibition of in the original communities. These objects would not be seen together in this particular way. The totem poles would be part architectural settings, the canoe would be used as a canoe and everyday objects would be used as part of everyday and masks would be used by specific kinds of individual during specific ceremonies. So the were putting all of these together in a Museum Display is a very way of representing these objects and of making these objects visible to a large number of people in a way that their makers did not intend and may be never even imagined. Another point that your reading makes is that the culture action of native american materials, the high period of colonialism, was just astonishing in its scale. So, for example, this is again, brillo and phillips between. 1879 and 1885, the Smithsonian Institution collected 6500 pottery vessels made by pueblo women from acoma and zuni, which villages of just a few hundred inhabitants. So these institutions are collecting enormous amounts of materials in some of these modes of collections are more coercive than others as were going to see that discipline. What is the type of knowledge, the academic discipline that is primarily involved in the collection of native american objects in this early period, late 19th, early 20th century. It is primarily and discipline of anthropology that is interested in learning about, studying and recording native American Cultures on the screen is franz boas, known as the father of american anthropology. He studied many native American Cultures. And im showing you a scene from book on the cook udall indians, also northwest coast group. These wonderful illustrations. At the same time as boas was interested in studying culture and anthropology of native American Groups, he was also part of a movement in anthropology to to take, analyze and study human remains, especially skull heads. So weve talked before more about the role of racial thinking, eugenics and the phenomenon of the collection human remains from a variety of groups concentrated in institutions like the smithsonian or the American Museum of Natural History and other places as well, where these human remains, these ancestors were treated like scientific specimens arent things to be studied. So franz boas, a father of american anthropology, analyzed over 1300 skull, ls that is an incredibly large number. So while anthropologists were busy collecting materials from native American Communities, both produced objects what we might call works of art in human remains. They were also busy projecting a vision of a native american. You may already seen this image. This is a very well known sculpture by. James frazier called the end of the trail. And today in the metropolitan of art. Today, this sculpture is part of a series of productions by euro americans that depict native American Culture as tired, exhausted, literally at the end of the trail, towards the end of their natural existence, that this was part representing native American Groups being part of the past, not part of the present, and certainly part of the future. So lets think of the implication of this kind of representation. And in here i want to quote jeffrey gibson, who is a native american artist, one of the group of native american artists and intellectuals who were invited to comment on artworks in at the metropolitan museum of art. And he, in this quote, what it felt to see this representation of native americans a child he says at the time i saw it as an image of ashamed defeated indian. And i wondered this was really how the rest of the world viewed us. So lets lets think about for a moment in lets think what these kinds of narratives, these kinds representations, what our the effects that they have, especially on the groups that are purportedly being what does it mean to be told you dont exist or you are extinct . And he goes on to discuss how these these kinds of representations have been reclaimed by native American Groups as a symbol of resilience in strength. Another way in which native American Culture was erased at the very moment when these objects were being collected is course the Indian Boarding School movement. And im showing you an image that is a very difficult to see it is from the personal papers of a man who was a proponent of the Indian Residential School system. And this image is preserved in his archives at yale university. So its a combination of two photos of before and after before and after photos are a technique we use in order to show a transformation, something has been transformed in case a person is purportedly has purportedly been transformed. The caption, says tom, toward zino navajo before. And after the before image shows man taken in 1880 to when he just arrived at the Carlisle Indian industrial school. And the next image shows him the same man in very different way. His appears and has changed his clothing has changed, his hair and accouterment might have changed in facial expression, has changed as well. So what has happened here . The indian boarding movement in canada, the Indian Residential School movement, it were a system of schools throughout the United States and canada. Many of them were run by religious organizing tions and charitable organizations. They saw it as their mission to take in need of american young people and to, quote unquote, improve them through education, to transform them from what they perceived as being savages. These were the words that they used in turning them into. So the boarding School Movement was one of the technologies used for child transfer, for genocide ii. Many of these schools took their students very far from their communities of origin. These young people were separated from their families as they had very little access to them. They were forbidden from speaking their original languages or their names, many of their names were changed. They were expected. Adopt forms of christian ity and to become americans and to integrate with American Society shorn from their native American Culture, which is seen as an impediment. And these Indian Boarding Schools were, places where of coercion places where the native children were often put to work, where there was its documented that there was a great deal of abuse in the mortal rate of the children, was quite high. These are issues that are now discussed more and more they have been discussed and canada much more than in the United States. But just a couple of years ago, the secretary of the interior deb haaland who is of course, a native american, announced an initiative to investigate the boarding School Systems in to really listen to the stories of survivors and to understand how the boarding School System was a and machinery for erasing culture. What is important us to understand is these processes for erasing American Culture were going on at the same time processes of collect native American Culture integrating native american objects into museums and studying native americans societies. So i think its very important for us who are interested in culture and human rights to see how these process pieces are unfolding at the same time and to really question what the links are. Did native americans sort of accept all of these . Of course, theyre they exercise their agency in figuring out how they were going to counter these events or what decisions they were going to make and how they were going to resist and. I want to take a special case of the zuni pueblo to discuss how at least one native American Group embarked on a whole campaign to to have returned their most important religious objects. So what im showing you on the screen is, an ahu, an aha yup an aha uda commonly called award god from zuni pueblo in present day new mexico and the United States. The what are the aha you does . They are representations of twin gods. They are often from wood. They are cylindrical and they feature a stylized face torso, enhance the in addition to the carved wooden section. There may be a number of other objects and offerings attached to them as we see in this in this drawing. The war gods are expected to live in special shrines that are located in various places in the zuni homeland. And this is one of those shrines photographed. Around 1886 each year, the religious leaders of the zuni create images of the war gods, and they place them at one of these shrines every year. The new are hired to replace existing ones. The retired quote unquote a hiu does are placed in a separate with other retired images. So here were seeing the current war gods in the front and the retired ones, the ones that have completed their year of activity are placed in the back of the shrine, but they up to remain there all the images in the from the zuni perspective of all the images must remain. As an integral part of the shrine the retired image wars are meant to gradually disinterred great and return to the earth once an image is installed at a shrine. No one has the authority to remove them. Zuni religious believe that to remove any of these objects from their place will unleash their and can be dangerous for humanity. As a whole. From the zuni perspective, as the Creative Process of the priests is a process that bestows Spiritual Life on the formerly inanimate materials, of which these objects are made. So in other words, once they have been activated by the priests, these images are considered to sentient beings. They are gods. Lets keep this concept in mind. In the period of high colonialism, many of these old and new war gods ended up being collected by various individuals through various means in. Many of them have ended up the course of the 20th century at various and public collections. Im showing you an image from the smithsonian in anthropological archives where we see a war exhibited in washington dc in 1905 with associated objects. So here the image is treated like a work of art or an anthropological artifact fact. It is shown in a glass case in a museum and often laid out for view to be seen and appreciated by visitors. The idea here that objects like this are objects that we study ready to learn about their the communities that meet them. We might admire the they were created. We might appreciate their esthetic quality ease. We might understand them as historical documents, as inspiration for reflection or, for artistic practice, but in this model, in this understood standing, such objects are inanimate object. They are maybe works of art. So two very different ways of conceptualizing what were seeing, why one of the what is most remarkable about the this phenomenon is that the zuni leaders were a dear to drive their campaign to find and reclaim, bring back the war gods constitutes the most documented effort by native American Group to bring back their religious objects before 1990, where something important that were going to talk about in a second. So this image shows the very first meeting in 1978 between officials of the zuni pueblo, who traveled to dc to meet with officials of the Smithsonian Institute mission, where they explore and to the curators what their perspective was. These objects and they originated. They instituted series of discussions and nine very long years later, the war gods were brought back to the zuni pueblo. So this happened way before a major federal legislation that was passed in 1990. That now is, one of the most important pieces of legislation about native american objects, this is nac. So now were in 1990, generations of, activists, native american leaders anthropology artists and other people in vesta, in native american rights, along with many politicians involved ended up culminated the passage of natpara, which in many ways is not perfect, but it was a major landmark legislation at the time. So ensure to what this nac say what does it what does natpara require are native american graves protection and repatriation act. It requires federal in museums or collections that receive federal funds to inventory ancestral remains objects associated with graves in certain items of cultural. And to make those inventories accessible, it creates a framework for native americans and institutions regarding repatriation. It protects rare jewels from further disturbance. It requires tribes to be consulted. It criminalizes illegal trafficking. So this is a lot. Were not going to cover all of it. In addition to now cpra, which is federal law, many states have their own laws. So in california we have cal nag, prime. So netra is human rights law, it is Cultural Heritage law. It is about rights, religious rights that really very important legislation. The Smithsonian Institution itself has sort of its own restitution. Situation centered on the National Museum of the american, which was established in 1989 as part of the smithsonian and new museum, was built. The national mall, where it still is. Its a wonderful institution and part of their task is the repatriation of collections in the care of the smithsonian. So uc davis is involved with nac ra because we receive federal funding and so you can learn all about nac pra and repatriation at uc davis dedicated website. Uc davis also had about 500 ancestors in the universities collection. Many of these ancestors were excavated in california at sites nearby as part of campaigns of salvage, archeology, and they were deposited in the university in the last few years. And uc davis has made enormous advances as at engaging with the appropriate native American Groups has repeated dated many of these ancestors and has made headway with the with consultation what to do with many of the others. Its an enormously the bureaucratic difficult and long process but one of the things that im proud to is that uc davis is actually one of the better actors. So what does it mean for native American Communities to be able to have their ancestors back . So lets listen to this voice by, you know, rex buck junior and he says, these remains that were talking about, their work is done. Theyve gone through the schooling. Theyve many people, different things. Their time is done. They to go back to the ground so that this ground can live like it needs to live and their spirit can continue where it needs to be. So its its incredibly important for communities to have their ancestors is back but has natpara been perfect . It has actually not been at all. And just in the last of weeks propublica the organization that supports Investigative Journalism just published a series of very sobering reports about the state of natpara restitution. And as of january 2023, the remains more than. 110,000 native americans reside in the collections of more than 600 institutions across the United States. But that number sink in for moment, topping the list is the university of california, berkeley. Our flagship, the home of the Free Speech Movement with the remains of at least 9075 native americans. Thats a lot of people. Thats a lot of families torn apart. So despite the that natpara was a hugely and market was a huge step forward as we have seen in so many in this class when we talk about human rights advances, legislation in itself is not enough. It has to be implemented in 40 implementation. You need another of sources, you need cooperation of institutes actions, but also the press, also activists also of the stakeholders to try the institutions, professors. And its not easy there have been a lot of resistance to natpara, including and this is another story from the university of california situation since when restitution is resisted in the name of science. So there was a landmark lawsuit, white versus university of california where professor tim white and a group of other professors, the university where they work in order to stop the repatriation of human remains. The situation was that in 1976 on the campus of uc san diego. So when they were excavated an area in order to build the home of the chancellor, they found two 9000 year old skeletons. And so a they had made arrangement the university had made arrangements to return these human remains to native American Organization and thats when the scientists the professors sued because to them, these human remains scientific specimens they have they have value to science. They need to be studied. And if they are returned to the community, reburied or somehow removed from the sphere of science removed from the lab, we will lose this knowledge. And so this was another where somebody this ancestor is seen by another as a scientific object, an of science. So this this agreement played out in court and it went all the way to the Supreme Court of california, where the dispute ended of finding in favor of restitution. So 1976, the ancestors that are. Found, 2016 the ancestors go home. How many years is that . 40. So this is a long time. Really long time. And so this is these delays are what cause a lot frustration and do not contribute to create trust and you know moving Forward University of california especially has mandated that we have to comply with now it is federal law the chancellor of berkeley has apologized to native American Communities, but apologies are wonderful. But action, i think, is where it would be really meaningful. So would even though it is not perfect natpara applies the United States now does not apply to other jurisdictions outside of the United States. So many institutions in other countries also have taken into period of colonialism or since then have taken a great deal of interest in native american objects, native american Cultural Heritage. And there a zuni war god who currently is held in the cape horn limits here in paris, in france this is a museum that has a wonderful collection of many important artifacts including a large collection of native american materials what they call amiri. Yeah and in this photograph we see the god being visited by the zuni elder and scholar octavius. So taylor, along with the anthropologist chip colwell is the author of a really great book about restitution of native american remains. And so they these two american inns visited the war god and they meet theyre meeting in this photograph with officials from the cable museum and the zoo needs communicated their their view that this is not the right place for the gods. This is not a work of art. This the god needs to return to the right place on the zuni pueblo and the response of the officials of the cable the museum was. But is the property of the french state. Kibali is a french state institution. So here is yet another way of looking at these materials as objects that can be owned, as objects that can be the property of an individual or a state. So nothing could be more opposite from the zuni view of what these objects are. They are they cannot be owned. The, if anything they are owned communally by the zuni and they cannot be moved. And so here is a quote from octavius or two other zuni scholar. This was in an interview gave to the New York Times where he says, quote, we believe, if you listen to us about the power these object have to our community, that these are examples of sacred objects of communally owned objects. Then museums will consider sending them back. So, so far, kibali has not. Taken this argument to heart, but we see here this continuous engaged movement by zuni elders with various community, various museums and other institutions in a process of creating dialog, in a very nonconfrontational national way, which is the ethics of, of zuni behavior, to communicate your point of view, to put yourself in the persons shoes, and to create a collaborative relation chip, rather than start with litigation. That has not been completely negative. There have been positive effects of natpara. Many ancestors have been returned and are now at peace. Many objects have been returned to their communities. But there, there has been the here we Albion College returning another zuni war god that had come into their possession into their if returned it 2018. Its taken a little while but it has happened now has also started an era where museum professional girls have worked very hard, at least some of them to re emerge in their relationship with native American Communities, not as communities from where you exist erect things like object kits for your collection, but as with whom you have a continued engagement continued programs of cooperate for mutual benefit. Even the American MuseumNatural History in new york renovated recently their northwest coast hall. I mean they still have totem poles. They still have the canoe now displayed in a different way. But theyve done this renovation in consultation with native american advisors. And there theres been some room for native American Groups to share their perspective lives and their way of thinking about these objects. So steps are being taken, though, theres many are many issues still to be resolved. The now i want is to to think about slightly different issue and that is the role that the content prairie art and contemporary artists have to play or can play in the the issue of native american art. Native American Heritage moving forward in here. Its very important us to recognize that native american artists are incredibly diverse they do incredibly kind of work. They are they do work that go looks towards tradition and they do work. They produce artwork that is completely within the ideas, the styles of contemporary art. So what im showing on the screen is a work painting by George Morrison from the 1960s. George morrison was a native american who lived in new york and was part of abstract expressionism, though jackson pollock. Those people this artist was part of that movement. So we shouldnt have a stereotype that native american are going to do certain kinds of things. They do all kinds of things. Heres another example. Jeffrey verhaeghe is an artist who is from the area around seattle. This is a Digital Print that represent neals nymph, represents neil armstrong. The astronaut. Its a Digital Print that uses the distinct northwest coast form lines style, but Jeffrey Verhaeghe is very interested in scientific space exploration. Futurism is very interested in superheroes in star trek and. So here we have a completely different interpretation of way in which native american traditional styles can become an inspiration for producing things that are completely new and completely unexpected and finally, with all human rights campaigns in especially cultural rights, we always need ways to keep focusing on the future and on the positive goals that we all have for cultural rights for all. So i want to leave you with this image. This is a totem pole created in 2017 by the contemporary artist from the haida nation james hart. He calls this the reconciliation pole. And it was erected on the campus of the university of British Columbia in vancouver, in canada, following a process of truth and reconciliation. And that took place in canada, especially having to do with the legacy of the Residential School system. And this pole newly carved presents the history of Indigenous People in canada before during and after the school era and reflects on the painful of the past, but also the possibility of building something new in the future anchored in the history of the moment but informed with the of the past. So i just want to leave you with this wonderful image that suggests that art, cultural, heritage, artistic practice has a tremendous to play in these human rights struggles moving forward. And the last slide with the bibliography, i think anyone has questions. Go ahead. Oh, hold on. Alex has, to step basically, i wouldnt go to the Supreme Court. And im wondering, can they revisit that which shows the case from this point and oh, from uc san diego. Oh, you see, san diego did go to california Supreme Court and the professors did not prevail. Yes. So that was a win for the indian community. And so ancestors returned to the community. Yes, but its interesting because some of the coverage of that. Took there was very sympathetic to the position of the professors about, you know, this is really not good for science. So you really have to balance the interests of with human rights. You using humans human remains for medical expression in science has a very bad history, not just in germany, but also in the united. So its very painful past that i think we dont need to go back to. But i have to imagine that there are ways of collaborating with the native to figure out a way theyre interested in science to come. And i something i thought about was it really is there is a profound National Issue of disrespect but for the Indigenous Peoples of this nation that is the real problem that, you know, when you look at the schools and how they wanted correct them basically you know they took the children and did all those horrific things in the name of what, you know, they it was just horrible and understanding. Its the same with slavery. You know, you dont identify that human being as a human being. Youre not going to respect them for their property or their culture or their heritage. I feel like i dont know. I guess theres a lot going on with that now, but i feel like there needs be more. Well were in the middle of a period change where a lot of issues are now part of the discussion, and thats great, but it doesnt mean that everything been resolved in the best possible way. I mean, this is the moment where. We need more attention, more vigilance, more listen to all the parties and the perspectives and maybe we can take some inspiration from the zuni elders, which is like, listen to the perspective of the other person and maybe learn something. Yeah, its its difficult. Its really difficult. And it can be really frustrating when you have to wait 40, 40 years. Thats a really long term. Yeah, absolutely yeah. Okay. Any other questions . Go ahead. Im so other than the apology by the chancellor of berkeley, they given a reason why they wont return any of the bottles. You can read the apology in full in the propublica website. I probably shouldnt attempt summarize it. Its very carefully, but it points to the future and it promises that berkeley will take steps to correct the bad past. So like all apologies and promises, you know, its great. But then, you know, its been 33 years since natpara. Theres lots of really smart people at berkeley. I think they can do this. Yeah. Any other questions. Okay. I will see you on wednesday. Okay, move