Repatriation

I thought this was a great story of an object finding its way back to its original resting place, after 100 years of travel. The story of the objects history was fascinating and I loved the happy ending!

“Notice of Intent to Repatriate a Cultural Item: Burke Museum, University of Washington, Seattle, WA (July 27, 2006).”
In 1904, the Burke Museum received a “four-foot tall stone figure” depicting “T’xwelátse or T’ixwelatsa (Tix-wil-aht-sah)” The stone figure is described has having “anthropomorphic and zoomorphic features carved… into the stone.” Its head has “large eyes and an open mouth with exaggerated lips” and the “body… appears to be seated with flexed arms and legs.”
T’xwelátse is the “first male ancestor” of the “Stó:lo people of British Columbia.” The Stó:lõ people believed that “T’xwelátse argued with his wife, thereby raising the ire of the transformer Xá:ls, who punished T’xwelátse by turning him into stone.” Then “Xá:ls told T’xwelátse’s wife to place the Stone T’xwelátse, as he was called, in front of her home so people would remember to live together peacefully.” After T’xwelátse’s wife passed away the “Stone T’xwelátse was cared for by his female descendants.”
Sometime in the mid-19th century the Stone T’xwelátse was moved from “British Columbia’s Chilliwack Valley to the area near what is now Sumas, Washington when one of the keepers married into the Sumas tribe.” Sometime between the 1880s and 1890s, after “white miners and settlers” attacked the Stó:lõ, the tribe was forced to “abandoned” their village. The Stone T’xwelátse was left behind. Then in 1892 the Stone T’xwelátse was found two farmers who “displayed [it] in a dime store until it was acquired by the Yong Naturalists’ Society that founded the Burke Museum. From 1904 to 2005, Stone T’xwelátse was kept in the Burke Museum.
The Stó:lõ people wanted the Stone T’xwelátse back in British Columbia. The stone is considered “an object of cultural patrimony” under NAGPRA, but the problem was that the law only applies to United States tribes, not Canada. The Stó:lõ asked the “Washington’s Nooksack, to act as a proxy on its behalf.” The Nooksack had to create a link between their ancestors and the Stó:lõ and issued a statement for the Stones return. The Statement said; “The Nooksack Indian Tribe of Washington is considered a member of the broader Chilliwack community (of which the Sto:lo are also a part), which includes both American and Canadian Chilliwack communities. Ties between the Chilliwack communities were artificially divided by the creation of the US and Canadian border in 1858. Despite this separation, the Nooksack continue to maintain a strong relationship with the Canadian Chilliwack community. The “Stone T’ixwelatsa” is culturally affiliated with the Nooksack Indian Tribe of Washington, as part of the Chilliwack community, based on religious, geographic, kinship, and oral history information presented by the tribe…The cultural item is considered collective property of the Chilliwack community and serves as a significant part of the cultural model for education.”
In 2005, Stone T’xwelátse left the Burke Museum and was repatriated “back to the Nooksack Indian Tribe of Washington.” For a short time the stone was “displayed at the tribe’s community center” and their “Nooksack River Casino.” The Stone T’xwelátse was finally transferred back to British Columbia to the Sto:lo Nation. “The Sto:lo Nation plans to place (the stone figure) at the entrance to their new Ch-ihl-kway=uhk Tribe’s Healing and Wellness Centre, which is currently under construction on the Chilliwack River, very close to where T’xwelatse was first turned to stone.”
(American Indian Art, Vol. 32 (4): 116-17, Autumn 2007)
You can see the Stone T’ixwelatsa at this website: http://www.washington.edu/burkemuseum/events/stone/index.php

“Notice of Intent to Repatriate a Cultural Item: U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Chaco Culture National Historical Park, Nageezi, NM. (June 1, 2005).” In September of 2000, the Chaco Culture National Historic Park received a package containing “2,173 objects, including hide pouches, a tanned rodent hide, shell beads, five quartz crystals, a human tooth and 1,890 stone beads.” An archaeologist examined the objects and determined they “may have come from a container, a sealed room, or a dry cave.” Within the objects, the Archaeologist found “medicine bundle remnants. ” These were “repatriated to the Pueblo of Zia, New Mexico” since the archaeologist “identified the bundle as one of the bundles kept by Pueblo of Zia medicine men who use the objects as part of their healing ceremonies and preparation of prayer sticks associated with solstice offerings.” (American Indian Art, Vol. 32 (1): 96, Winter 2006)

“Notice of Intent to Repatriate a Cultural Item: Berkshire Museum, Pittsfield, MA (June 1, 2005).” The Berkshire museum “received a clay pipe bowl that came from an unspecified site in Pittsfield.” “The bowl dates to the Late Woodland period (c. A.D> 1000-1580) and was identified by tribal members as coming from the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohican Indians.” The bowl is considered a sacred object , which would still be used “for the continuation of traditions and rituals within the tribe…pipe bowls of this type have been used to seal peace treaties between rival groups, as religious offerings to higher spirits, and as funerary gifts to the deceased” The pipe bowl has been sent to the “Stockbridge Munsee Community” in Wisconsin. (American Indian Art, Vol. 32 (1): 96, Winter 2006)

I really enjoyed the American Indian Art magazine, and of course I spent most of the time looking at the objects and getting some good pointers on how they were photographed, as well as enjoying the up close details of the objects. I also read the auction items, and found one Archaic Stone that sold for $121,000. There were several items for sale and all were very expensive.