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NAGPRA Issues in Hawaii, 2017. Includes an excellent article summarizing the controversy over the Kawaihae (Forbes Cave) artifacts and burials, together with related historical events in the Kawaihae area including the slaughter of Keoua by Kamehameha for sacrifice to dedicate puukohola heiau, including the belief that one of the corpses buried in the cave is Keoua, and a description of the burial itself. (See topic 4).

Coverage of NAGPRA-related topics in Hawaii first came to this website in 2003 when the national NAGPRA review committee decided to devote its national meeting to the Forbes Cave controversy. Forbes cave was the most intensively covered topic from 2003 to 2007. But other topics also came to public attention, including Bishop Museum, the Emerson collection repatriated and reburied at Kanupa Cave, the discovery of ancient bones during a major construction project at Ward Center (O'ahu), construction of a house built above burials at the shorefront at Naue, Ha'ena, Kaua'i; etc.

The Forbes cave controversy up until the NAGPRA Review Committee hearing in St. Paul, Minnesota, May 9-11, 2003 was originally described and documented at:
https://www.angelfire.com/hi2/hawaiiansovereignty/nagpraforbes.html

The conflict among Bishop Museum, Hui Malama, and several competing groups of claimants became so complex and contentious that the controversy was the primary focus of the semiannual national meeting of the NAGPRA Review Committee meeting in St. Paul, Minnesota May 9-11, 2003. A webpage was created to cover that meeting and followup events related to it. But the Forbes Cave controversy became increasingly complex and contentious, leading to public awareness of other related issues. By the end of 2004, the webpage focusing on the NAGPRA Review Committee meeting and its aftermath had become exceedingly large, at more than 250 pages with an index of 22 topics at the top. See:
https://www.angelfire.com/hi2/hawaiiansovereignty/nagpraforbesafterreview.html

That large webpage became so difficult to use that it was stopped on December 29, 2004; and a new webpage was created to collect news reports for NAGPRA issues in Hawai'i during year 2005. An index for 2005 appears at the beginning, and readers may then scroll down to find the detailed coverage of each topic. For coverage of NAGPRA issues in Hawai'i in 2005 (about 250 pages), see:
https://www.angelfire.com/hi2/hawaiiansovereignty/nagprahawaii2005.html

For year 2006 another new webpage was created, following the same general format. See:
https://www.angelfire.com/hi2/hawaiiansovereignty/nagprahawaii2006.html

For year 2007, another new webpage was created, following the same general format. See:
https://www.angelfire.com/planet/bigfiles40/nagprahawaii2007.html

For year 2008, another new webpage was created, following the same general format. See:
https://www.angelfire.com/planet/big60/nagprahawaii2008.html

For year 2009, another new webpage was created, following the same general format. See:
https://www.angelfire.com/big09a/nagprahawaii2009.html

For year 2010, another new webpage was created, following the same general format. See:
https://www.angelfire.com/big09a/nagprahawaii2010.html

For year 2011, another new webpage was created, following the same general format. See:
https://www.angelfire.com/big09/nagprahawaii2011.html

For year 2012, another new webpage was created, following the same general format. See:
https://www.angelfire.com/big09/nagprahawaii2012.html

For year 2013, another new webpage was created, following the same general format. See:
https://www.angelfire.com/big09/nagprahawaii2013.html

For year 2014, another new webpage was created, following the same general format. See:
https://www.angelfire.com/big09/nagprahawaii2014.html

For year 2015, another new webpage was created, following the same general format. See:
https://www.angelfire.com/big09/nagprahawaii2015.html

For year 2016, another new webpage was created, following the same general format. See:
https://www.angelfire.com/big11a/nagprahawaii2016.html

NOW BEGINS 2017

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LIST OF TOPICS FOR 2017: Full coverage of each topic follows the list; the list is in roughly chronological order, created as events unfold during 2017.

(1) Events on the U.S. mainland or in foreign nations involving issues similar to NAGPRA or similar to past or present events in Hawaii. In some cases these news reports are displayed here to counteract assertions that Native Hawaiian burials, bones or cultural artifacts are singled out for disrespectful treatment in ways that Caucasians would never treat their own burials, bones, or artifacts; and also to show that many "indigenous" or "aboriginal" tribes encourage using ancient bones to get DNA samples to establish scientific proof of their ancestries in their homelands.
(a) After 20 years, Kennewick Man or the Ancient One, is reburied
(b) A woman in Newfoundland/Labrador (Canada) claims to be a descendant of a tribe (Beothuk) thought to have gone extinct in 1829 and has gotten DNA test to bolster her claim to be chief and to seek federal recognition of the tribe.
(c) Wampanoag chief Massasoit Ousamequin who forged a peaceful relationship with the Pilgrims in 1621 will be reburied, along with some of his repatriated artifacts, at his original gravesite in Rhode Island.
(d) Rosita Worl, a member of the Tlingit nation and president of the Sealaska Heritage Institute (she was actively involved in the Forbes Cave controversy as a member of the NAGPRA Review Committee) has published a report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, of a study which examined the remains of Shuk� K�a ("Man Ahead of Us" in Tlingit), a 10,300-year-old individual unearthed in 1996 from the On Your Knees Cave in Prince of Wales Island, Alaska which were found to be closely related to the Tsimshian, Tlingit, Nisga'a, and Haida tribes living in the region today.
(e) A public park will be built as a reburial monument for 11 ancestral remains discovered at the Pago Bay (Guam) development site a decade ago.
(f) Skull and bones of a former slave being considered for sainthood are exhumed and taken to a Catholic church and placed into a reliquary chest for veneration.
(g) Chumash tribe leaders and National Park Service archeologists work together to excavate 12,000 year old artifacts from under a ranch house.
(h) Interior Secretary Zinke is reviewing the work of the NAGPRA Review Committee, causing delays in efforts to stop foreign sales of Indian artifacts or to get them repatriated.
(i) The ancient Roman-Egyptian linen-wrapped remains of a 5-year-old girl, including an embedded portrait, were unearthed in Hawara, Egypt, in 1911. The mummy is remaining untouched but examined by the high-energy penetrating X-ray beams from the Advanced Photon Source synchrotron at Argonne National Laboratory near Chicago, yielding tremendous discoveries about lifestyle and technology 1800 years ago.

(2) Native Hawaiians on vacation in Paris, France protest an announcement of an auction of 1100 Native Hawaiian artifacts scheduled by Aguttes Auction House. (2 articles)

(3) On Kaua'i, a controversial lengthy paved coastal path used for bicycling and hiking passes through an area where there are ancient burials. The path detoured around some of them, and an above-ground crypt was erected to contain burials which were moved. [See articles from previous years covering this controversy, focusing on whether the path should run farther from the shoreline]

(4) An excellent article summarizing the controversy over the Kawaihae (Forbes Cave) artifacts and burials, together with related historical events in the Kawaihae area including the slaughter of Keoua by Kamehameha for sacrifice to dedicate puukohola heiau, including the belief that one of the corpses buried in the cave is Keoua, and a description of the burial itself.

(5) The Museum of Ethnology in Dresden Germany is returning human bones that were stolen from burial caves in Hawaii during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

(6) Christies in Paris on November 21, 2017 auctioned a carved wooden statue of the Hawaiian war god Kuka'ilimoku authenticated to be from Kona from the period 1780 to 1819. The successful bidder paid 6,345,000 Euros, approximately 7,551,000 U.S. dollars.

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FULL TEXT OF ARTICLES FOR 2017

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https://indiancountrymedianetwork.com/history/traditional-societies/kennewick-man-returns-home/
Indian Country Today, February 21, 2017

Kennewick Man Returns Home
After 20 years, Kennewick Man or the Ancient One, is reburied

Richard Walker

Uytpama Natitayt -- Kennewick Man, or the Ancient One, an ancestor of the First People of the Columbia Plateau -- is finally home.

More than 200 of his relatives came together at an undisclosed location on the Columbia Plateau early February 18 to lay him to rest. They came from the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, from the Nez Perce Tribe, from the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Reservation and the Wanapum Tribe and the Yakama Nation.

Religious leaders from each of the Native Nations jointly conducted a ceremony. And then Kennewick Man's remains were returned to the earth, just as loved ones first laid him to rest some 9,000 years ago.

The ceremony was private.

Uytpama Natitayt (sounds like "Oit pa ma na tit tite") knew this place. The Ancient One fished for salmon, steelhead and sturgeon in the Columbia River, which he likely knew as Nch'i-Wana, or "Great River." He hunted and harvested in the eco-diverse grasslands, savannas and shrublands of the plateau. His relatives still fish and hunt and harvest here. And they still honor, remember and respect the ancestors who gave life to the next generation and passed on the teachings before walking on.

"The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation is proud to have worked with all parties to repatriate the Ancient One to the Tribes," Umatilla Chairman Gary Burke said in an announcement issued by the Umatilla Tribes. "We jointly believe in respecting our ancestors of our past and have fulfilled our responsibility to finally lay the Ancient One to rest."

Umatilla Tribes Council member Armand Minthorn added, "This is a big day and our people have come to witness and honor our ancestor. We continue to practice our beliefs and laws as our Creator has given us since time immemorial."

In a separate statement issued by his office, Yakama Nation Chairman JoDe Goudy said: "The return of our ancestor to Mother Earth is a blessing for all Yakama people. The Ancient One (also known as the 'Kennewick Man') may now finally find peace, and we, his relatives, will equally feel content knowing that this work has been completed on his behalf. For more than two decades we have fought on behalf of our ancestors. The unity of the Native people during our collective efforts to bring the Ancient One home is a glimpse of how life once was, when we were all one people."

Uytpama Natitayt's journey to this day was a long one. Two men inadvertently found Kennewick Man's remains, which had been exposed by erosion, on the shores of the Columbia River in 1996. The Plateau Tribes believed that the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, or NAGPRA, would ensure the Ancient One would be quickly returned for reburial. Court challenges delayed that return.

In the ensuing years, Uytpama Natitayt was subjected to anthropological study, and his remains were handled and measured and sampled. Kennewick Man was determined to be 8,400 to 8,690 years old, according to the Burke Museum. Some questioned his origin and his identity. But his relatives knew who he was and never ceased in their efforts to have him returned home.

Modern genetic science proved Kennewick Man's relatives right--that he was indeed from the Plateau and an ancestor of today's indigenous Plateau peoples. "We always knew the Ancient One to be Indian," Umatilla Tribes Council member Aaron Ashley said in the announcement. "We have oral stories that tell of our history on this land and we knew, at the moment of his discovery, that he was our relation."

On December 10, Congress approved a bill requiring the Washington State Department of Archaeology & Historic Preservation to return Uytpama Natitayt's remains to his relatives at the Colville, Nez Perce, Umatilla, Yakama, and Wanapum nations. On February 17, representatives of the Plateau Tribes met at the Burke Museum in Seattle, where the remains had been held. Representatives of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the state Department of Archaeology & Historic Preservation, and curators of the Burke Museum, formally returned Uytpama Natitayt's remains to his people.

While the Ancient One's return was being argued in the courts and in Congress, the state's historic preservation office was responsible for his remains. At the ceremony formally returning Kennewick Man to his relatives, state historic preservation officer Allyson Brooks apologized for the trauma caused by the separation.

"On behalf of Gov. Jay Inslee and the State of Washington, it is my honor today to pass your relative, the Ancient One, back to you so you can have your family member again like you should have all along," Brooks said. "I have been your state historic preservation officer for 18 years and this is one of my proudest moments, and I apologize to all of you for the trauma that this has caused for the last 20 years, and I apologize to the Ancient One for the trauma he has gone through for the past 20 years."

She said her hope for the Ancient One "is that he go home by the Columbia River ... so he can be at peace."

To the Ancient One, she said, "You did wake me up at nights, so I'll be really happy if I can sleep again." To his relatives, she said, "I want to congratulate you for never, ever, ever giving up on your family member."

Who was Uytpama Natitayt?

Uytpama Natitayt received his name from the Plateau Tribes; "Uytpama Natitayt" means "Ancient One," according to Chuck Sams, the Umatilla Tribes' communications director.

If alive today, Uytpama Natitayt might be a poster boy for the health benefits of an Omega 3-rich diet.

According to an anthropological report on the National Park Service website, Kennewick Man stood about 5 feet 9 inches, and his diet consisted mostly of fish. He was "in excellent shape for a man of his age." He was well-muscled and had arms similar to those of "modern weight lifters or construction laborers." Another anthropologist who studied his remains told National Public Radio that the Ancient One's right arm resembled that of a professional baseball pitcher. The NPR writer was compelled to refer to Uytpama Natitayt as "beefcake."

Uytpama Natitayt was definitely buff. At one point in his life, when he was a teenager, he was injured in an accident or conflict; he suffered two broken ribs and a broken right arm, and a projectile point was embedded in his pelvis. Kennewick Man completely recovered from his injuries.

Uytpama Natitayt passed away when he was 45 to 50 years old, possibly from a frontal bone injury. Nearly nine millennia after his passing, he returned to show the world that The People are indeed indigenous to this land, that their oral histories are not myths but factual record.

His work done, Uytpama Natitayt rests again.

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** Highlight: "Even if I would never have gotten a DNA test, I have the documentation to back up my Beothuk family," she added. Regardless of what historians and the scientific community believes, Reynolds Boyce has started to assert her authority as chief of the Beothuk First Nation. She said the tribe is recognized in the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador and will seek federal recognition. Reynolds Boyce said as a Beothuk descendant she has earned the right to claim Beothuk artifacts."

https://indiancountrymedianetwork.com/history/traditional-societies/womans-beothuk-birthright-claim-stirs-controversy/
Indian Country Today, March 10, 2017

Woman's Beothuk Birthright Claim Stirs Controversy
Carol Reynolds Boyce seeks federal recognition for Beothuk

by Tish Leizens

When Shanawdithit, said to be the last known Beothuk, died of tuberculosis in 1829 at St. John's in Eastern Canada's Newfoundland Labrador, the Beothuk tribe of Newfoundland was recorded in history books as extinct. Today, 188 years later, a woman is challenging the written word and says she carries the bloodline of those aboriginal people. She also says she has the proof to back it up.

Her claim has been met with skepticism.

"I thought it would be a happy thing to let the world know that Beothuk are a small [tribe] but we are not extinct; we are alive even now," said Carol Reynolds Boyce, who is leading a group that wants to be recognized as Beothuk First Nation. She said she was voted by the council as chief of the tribe. On facebook, the group goes by Beothuk First Nation Tribe of Canada and North America Reservation INC and describes the purpose of their page as: "Reviving, Gathering & Healing the Beothuk Tribe, thought to be extinct due to Genocide in Newfoundland Labrador Canada and North America."

The Beothuk, said to be distant relatives of the Algonquin, came to Newfoundland from Labrador. They were hunter-gathering people who ate caribou, salmon and seals, and lived in mamateeks, conical dwellings covered by birch bark. Most historical accounts depict them as independent, self-sufficient people who typically avoided contact with Europeans.

Around 1000 AD, the Beothuk came in contact with the Norse explorers who settled on the shores of northern Newfoundland. Some of the encounters with the European Vikings were friendly, but others were violent. The Vikings called them "Skraeling," meaning barbarian or foreigner, referring to Beothuk dressed in animal skins.

Later on, the Beothuk were called "Red Indians" because they used red ochre to cover their bodies, clothes, canoes and weapons. Red ochre was also used on an infant to mark the child's tribal identity and initiation into the world.

By 1497, when John Cabot, a European, came into contact with the Beothuk, historians estimate there were about 700 to 1000 Beothuk members. Their eventual demise was recorded by historians: as Europeans encroached on their territory, the tribe retreated inland, losing access to their fishing grounds and finding themselves competing for the same resources as the European settlers and other tribes, such as the Mi'kmaqs and Inuit. This resulted in undernourishment and starvation. Members also succumbed to diseases, such as smallpox and tuberculosis.

Ingeborg Marshall, author of A History and Ethnography of the Beothuk, in a talk given to the Newfoundland Historical Society in 1996, cited the dire situation a year before Shanawdithit died. "Shanawdithit related to [William Epps Cormack, founder of the Beothuk Institution] how her tribe had dwindled from 72 members in 1811 to only 12 or 13 at the time she was captured. She had little hope that they would survive since they were too few to keep up the caribou-fences; and being driven from the shore, their means of existence were completely cut off."

Shanawdithit's death in 1829 marked the end of the Beothuk people as a "distinct cultural entity," according to Heritage Newfoundland & Labrador, a website that provides authoritative information about the province's history. However, it adds, "oral evidence indicates that some survivors were still living on the island, in Labrador, and elsewhere in North America."

Marshall said in her book that it was quite possible Mik'maq married Beothuk survivors but kept it a secret, particularly from the English settlers. She said that Santu Toney, born around 1837, was born from a Mi'kmaq mother and a Beothuk father.

Fast-forward to today. Reynolds Boyce, in her 50s, traces her Beothuk origins from her forefathers. She claims her great grandfather James Compagnon Prosper and brother, William Prosper, who she calls Uncle Soolian, were full-blooded Beothuk. Their father and mother were also Beothuk.

"[Uncle Soolian] escaped with his brother and father during the genocide. They hid their identities in Turtle Grove Dartmouth, Nova Scotia and pretended to be Mi'kmaqs," Reynolds Boyce told ICMN. " My uncle was a self-proclaimed Mi'kmaq chief. He pretended to be a Mi'kmaq chief to hide his Beothuk identity."

William Prosper, according to his obituary at the Nova Scotia Museum, died at the Truro Indian Reservation in Nova Scotia in 1923, at the age of 101. Prosper was born in the Bay of Islands, in Newfoundland, in 1822. Around 1848, he moved to Nova Scotia's Whycocomagh, Cape Breton Island. He lived in Dartmouth in the first decade of the 20th century and also lived in Halifax.

Reynolds Boyce claimed her uncle taught Beothuk medicine to his best friend, Mi'kmaq Jeremiah Lonecloud from Maine. "Jeremiah Lonecloud always claimed my uncle as his best friend. I have family in Newfoundland and in Maine and New Hampshire and in the southern states, all Beothuks," she said.

"He [Uncle Soolian] practiced the Beothuk traditions/culture of his old Beothuk tribe in Newfoundland. Now, that's the real truth. He was a beautiful man," she said.

In October 2016, Reynolds Boyce hired Toronto-based Viaguard/Accu-Metrics to test her DNA and that of her mother and brother to prove their Beothuk ethnicity. She later made public that the company test confirmed they are of Beothuk origin, but geneticists are skeptical.

"The problem is that we do not have good Beothuk samples, despite best efforts to date, and in my opinion we are unlikely to get more," Dr. Steve Carr, a biology professor at Memorial University who specializes in genetics and evolution and who co-wrote a 2011 paper on Beothuk DNA, told ICMN.

Viaguard/Accu-Metrics, in the Canadian newspaper The Telegram, said it links a customer's DNA with DNA from a proven member of a specific First Nation. The company said that for the Reynolds Boyce test it used genetic information from a 2007 published study in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology as basis for its findings.

The 2007 study, which examined mitochondrial DNA taken from the remains of Nonosobasut and his wife, Desmaduit, uncle and aunt of Shanawdithit, showed genetic matches between the Beothuk couple and living Mi'kmaqs. Viaguard/Accu-Metrics said Reynolds Boyce's DNA was a match to the genetic information in the 2007 study.

But Carr said that his laboratory disputes the 2007 study and concluded that there is no close relationship between the living Mi'kmaqs and Beothuk. "Absent good reference material, it is impossible to make a definite identification, and even what appears to be a perfect match proves little or nothing if the DNA [sequences] is too short."

"I would say Carr is biased and he never had his facts straight," said Reynolds Boyce, claiming that the DNA extracted from the teeth of Nonosobasut and Desmaduit, which she said was used as reference by Viaguard/Accu-Metrics, proves she is Beothuk.

"Even if I would never have gotten a DNA test, I have the documentation to back up my Beothuk family," she added.

Regardless of what historians and the scientific community believes, Reynolds Boyce has started to assert her authority as chief of the Beothuk First Nation. She said the tribe is recognized in the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador and will seek federal recognition.

Reynolds Boyce said as a Beothuk descendant she has earned the right to claim Beothuk artifacts. Last last year, she contacted Chief Mi'sel Joe of Mi'kmaq Nation of Conne River and asked him to stop his request to repatriate the remains of Nonosabasut and Demasduit from Scotland. The remains were taken from the gravesite in Newfoundland in 1828.

Joe said he was not stopping his efforts. "The remains do not belong to any individual. It belongs to this country. It is the right thing to do." CBC News reported in August 2016 that the Canadian government has made a formal request to the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh for the repatriation.

"I would love it if her claim is true and if the Beothuk people are not gone," he said. "I am in no position to make any judgment on her bloodline. It is not up to me. You have to get proof from the government of the land. You need federal recognition, provincial recognition.

"Our tribe needs to be able to repatriate or own; it is part of our healing. Other tribes need to stop stealing from other tribes. It is time for Beothuk First Nation to be heard and we need protection," Reynolds Boyce said talking of conspiracy against her tribe.

Carol Reynolds Boyce goes against history books and popular belief that the Beothuks are extinct. She says they are alive, but endangered.

"We are not looking for land, money or anything. Just the truth," Joe said, brushing aside claims of a conspiracy. "We are already recognized. It is not going to change anything. We stand on our credibility in our country." He added: "It is not an Indian issue. It is not an aboriginal issue. It is a people's issue of this country."

In January, Reynolds Boyce wrote Massachusetts-based Robert S. Peabody Museum of Archeology seeking for the remains of the red paint people or the Red Ochre/Beothuk. She said the museum told her that the Wabanaki Confederacy (Mi'kmaq and Abenaki) who earlier made the claim was already granted the human remains and artifacts.

"We are in 2017. I hope that I could say that things have changed, but not everyone thinks that way and that is an encouragement to continue to stand for my people," Reynolds Boyce said.

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http://www.nydailynews.com/newswires/news/national/tribal-chief-signed-treaty-pilgrims-reburied-article-1.3055553
New York Daily News, April 14, 2017

Tribal chief who signed treaty with Pilgrims to be reburied

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) -- The remains of the Wampanoag leader who forged a peaceful relationship with the Pilgrims will be reburied at his original gravesite in Rhode Island.

Members of the Wampanoag Nation have spent 20 years tracking down the remains and artifacts of Massasoit Ousamequin. It was their "spiritual and cultural obligation," said Ramona Peters, who coordinated the effort.

Ousamequin signed the first treaty with the Pilgrims after they arrived on the Mayflower, promising in 1621 in the village that became Plymouth, Massachusetts, to protect each other, according to the Wampanoags. The peace lasted for decades.

Ousamequin was buried on a hilltop in Warren overlooking Narragansett Bay. His remains and artifacts were scattered when a railroad was built through the burial site nearly two centuries after his death and archaeologists and local residents dug there.

Objects belonging to Ousamequin, which translates to "yellow feather," became part of collections in seven museums. A private ceremony is planned for May at the gravesite.

A federal law that took effect in 1990 requires museums to transfer remains and any associated burial objects to culturally affiliated tribes. The purpose of the law, the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, was to allow for reburials consistent with tribal traditions. Peters said it has been difficult because there was resistance from some museums at first.

"Native Americans across the country appreciate Congress passing this, which makes the entire repatriation possible," she said Friday.

Ousamequin's artifacts include a pipe, knife, beads and arrowheads.

The Rhode Island Historical Society has repatriated about 75 items to the appropriate tribes since the law's passage, including artifacts belong to Ousamequin. They were donated as relics in the 1800s, but collections aren't assembled in that way today, said Kirsten Hammerstrom, director of collections.

"Grave goods are not something we dig up and accept. They belong to the tribe," she said.

Peters is a citizen of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Members of her tribe and the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head and the Assonet Band of Wampanoag helped with the effort.

The Wampanoags have collected hundreds of funerary objects that were removed from the burial ground on the hill and held dozens of burials for their ancestors whose graves were disturbed, Peters said.

"It is an honor and a privilege to be able to do this for our ancestors," she said.

** 3 photo captions

This undated photo provided by the Wampanoag Confederation and made at their Massachusetts repository shows a kinfe that once belonged to Massasoit Ousamequin, the Wampanoag leader who signed the first treaty with the Mayflower's Pilgrims in 1621. It is one of several artifacts that will be repatriated in a May 2017 ceremony to his original burial site on Burr's Hill Park overlooking Narragansett Bay in Warren, R.I.

This undated photo provided by the Wampanoag Confederation and made at their Massachusetts repository shows beads that once belonged to Massasoit Ousamequin, the Wampanoag leader who signed the first treaty with the Mayflower's Pilgrims in 1621. It is one of several artifacts that will be repatriated in a May 2017 ceremony to his original burial site on Burr's Hill Park overlooking Narragansett Bay in Warren, R.I.

This undated photo provided by the Wampanoag Confederation and made at their Massachusetts repository shows a pipe that once belonged to Massasoit Ousamequin, the Wampanoag leader who signed the first treaty with the Mayflower's Pilgrims in 1621. It is one of several artifacts that will be repatriated in a May 2017 ceremony to his original burial site on Burr's Hill Park overlooking Narragansett Bay in Warren, R.I.

----------------------------

https://indiancountrymedianetwork.com/history/traditional-societies/genetic-continuity-study-backs-oral-histories/
Indian Country Today, April 25, 2017

Genetic Continuity Study Backs Up Oral Histories
Study Revealing 10,000 Years of Genetic Continuity Supports Oral Histories

by Alexander Ewen

A new scientific report has shown genetic links between ancient skeletons found in Alaska and British Columbia and the Indigenous Peoples who live in the area today. According to co-author Rosita Worl, a member of the Tlingit nation and president of the Sealaska Heritage Institute, the study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on April 4 shows that "our ancestral lineage stems from the first initial peopling of the region" and that "science is corroborating our oral histories."

The report, "Ancient Individuals From the North American Northwest Coast Reveal 10,000 Years of Regional Genetic Continuity," examined the remains of Shuk� K�a ("Man Ahead of Us" in Tlingit), a 10,300-year-old individual unearthed in 1996 from the On Your Knees Cave in Prince of Wales Island, Alaska. The scientists discovered that Shuk� K�a was closely related to three other ancient individuals from British Columbia, 939, 443 and 302 (unfortunately they are only known by their catalogue numbers). 939, a 6,075 year-old skeleton found on Lucy Island, and 302 (2,500 years-old) and 443 (1,750 years-old), unearthed near Prince Rupert Harbor, were in turn found to be closely related to the Tsimshian, Tlingit, Nisga'a, and Haida tribes living in the region today.

The study's examination of both mitochondrial DNA and nuclear DNA led to the revelation of complex relationships between all the ancient skeletons and modern Indians. Lead author John Lindo, of the Department of Human Genetics, University of Chicago, explained that "Mitochondrial DNA just traces the maternal line � your mother's mother's lineage � so, you're missing information about all of these other ancestors. We wanted to analyze the nuclear genome so we could get a better assessment of the population history of this region." Both Shuk� K�a and 939 belong to the mtDNA (mitochondrial) haplogroup D4h3a, as does the 12,500-year-old Anzick Child, unearthed in Montana in 1968, yet most modern indigenous people on the Alaskan Coast do not. On the other hand Shuk� K�a exhibits a close nuclear DNA relationship with 302 and 443, both of whom belong to mtDNA haplogroup A2, as do many Northwest Coast Indians.

The study concludes that, "Shuk� K�a was part of a population closely related to the ancestors that gave rise to the current populations of the northern Northwest Coast." On the other hand the scientists did not find a close relationship between these groups of skeletons and Kennewick Man, an 8,500-year-old person unearthed from the banks of the Columbia River in Washington state. This adds a new element in attempting to understand the past migrations of ancient Indians. As Ripan S. Malhi of the Department of Anthropology, University of Illinois and co-lead author notes: "The data suggest that there were multiple genetic lineages in the Americas from at least 10,300 years ago."

The discovery of a continuous 10,000-year relationship between ancient and modern Indians has added a new factor in the legal debate over unearthing and reburying indigenous remains. In this particular case a remarkable cooperation ensued between the scientists and the Alaska Natives. Dr. Worl did not see a conflict between science and Native traditions: "We supported DNA testing of Shuk� K�a because we believed science ultimately would agree with what our oral traditions have always said � that we have lived in southeast Alaska since time immemorial."

In 1996, in the case of Kennewick Man, a legal battle ensued between the scientists and the federal government (enforcing laws that protect Indian grave sites) over whether Kennewick Man should be reburied. The government ultimately lost because it could not be proven that Kennewick Man was an Indian. Back then extracting DNA from skeletons was almost impossible, but in 2015, his DNA was able to be sequenced and in a study published in Nature the debate was settled. The report, "The Ancestry and Affiliations of Kennewick Man," found that not only was he more closely related to Indians than any other population, but he was likely an ancestor of, among other tribes, the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, a tribe that had claimed him as their own.

The study led Congress to pass legislation, signed on December 19, 2016 by President Obama, that required Kennewick Man, now known as the Ancient One, to be turned over to the tribes and reburied. On February 18, 2017, in a ceremony led by the members of the Umatilla, Yakama, Nez Perce, Colville tribes and the Wanupum Band of Columbia River Indians, the Ancient One was laid to rest.

---------------------------

http://www.staradvertiser.com/2017/06/07/breaking-news/remains-of-former-slave-eyed-for-sainthood-moved-to-church/
Honolulu Star-Advertiser, June 7, 2017, breaking news

Remains of former slave eyed for sainthood moved to church

by Associated Press

DENVER >> In a step toward possible sainthood, the remains of a former slave have been moved to a Catholic cathedral in Denver, where people lined up Wednesday to honor her and pray for her help.

Many touched the glass covering of a wooden chest holding the exhumed skull and other bones of Julia Greeley, a domestic worker known for her charity work and evangelism until her death in 1918.

Others placed rosary beads on top of the chest, snapped photos and held up their children so they could view the sacred remains.

After the viewing, the chest was screwed shut, sealed with gold wax and moved to a prominent spot next to the altar at the Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception.

The remains were exhumed last month from a grave in a suburban Denver cemetery and moved to the cathedral -- a typical step at the beginning of the sainthood process, archdiocesan spokeswoman Karna Swanson said.

Greeley is one of four people that U.S. bishops voted to allow to be investigated for possible sainthood at their fall meeting. She joins four other African Americans placed into consideration in recent years. She is also the first person to be interred in the Denver cathedral since it opened in 1912.

"Not a bishop, not a priest, but a lay woman," Auxiliary Bishop Jorge H. Rodriguez-Novelo noted during the ceremony Wednesday that came 99 years to the day after Greeley died on her way to Mass.

The archdiocese is gathering testimony and documentation about Greeley's life as part of the first stage of the sainthood process. It will send a report to the Vatican, which will then decide whether to investigate Greeley's virtues.

After that, church officials would look at whether any miracles could be attributed to Greeley, who was known for providing wood, coal and other supplies for people in need. She did the work at night to remain anonymous and to avoid embarrassment for those receiving the help.

Greeley sometimes sent children to knock on the doors of those who needed help then run away, said Mary Leisring, president of the Julia Greeley Guild, which helps promote her story.

Greeley was born into slavery in Hannibal, Missouri, sometime between 1833 and 1848. As a child she lost an eye after the slave owner accidentally struck her with a whip while beating her mother.

Greeley routinely visited every fire station in the city to spread her faith because she wanted to make sure the firefighters were prepared to meet God should they die on the job.

She did her charitable work on foot despite suffering from extensive arthritis, which was confirmed by Christine Pink of Metropolitan State University, a forensic anthropologist who supervised the exhumation of her bones.

The initial screening of Greeley by the archdiocese is expected to be completed next year.

"Whether she is an official saint or not she's already a saint to me," Leisring said.

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https://indiancountrymedianetwork.com/history/traditional-societies/ancient-archaeological-site-uncovered-old-house-california/
Indian Country Today, June 13, 2017

Ancient Archaeological Site Uncovered Under Old House in California
Santa Rosa Island known for its ancient archaeological sites, was home to Chumash Nation

by Alexander Ewen

Workers renovating the historic Vail & Vickers ranch house on Santa Rosa Island, off the coast of Southern California, uncovered ancient spear points and fishhooks that appear to date from 10,000 to 12,000 years ago. Santa Rosa Island, a part of the Channel Islands, is 40 miles by water from the town of Ventura on the California coast. For thousands of years the home of the Chumash Nation, the island has long been known for its ancient archaeological sites.

The house over which the site was found was built in 1855 by Alpheus Thompson and John C. Jones. They had come into possession of the island by marrying the daughters of Jose Antonio and Carlos Barrelo Carrillo, two brothers who were granted the island by the Mexican government. It subsequently passed into hands of various ranchers until the island was acquired by the prominent cattle ranching concern, Vail & Vickers in 1902. In 1986, the National Park Service purchased the island and in 1998 shut down the remaining cattle operations. The house was being converted into a hotel when the workers tunneling in the basement discovered the artifacts.

** Photo captions
Vail & Vickers, Vail & Vickers Ranch House, National Park Service, Santa Rosa Island, Channel Islands, Chumash Nation, Ancient Archaeological Sites, Archaeological Sites, Artifacts, Native American Artifacts, Spearheads, University of Oregon, Oregon State Museum of Anthropology, Arlington Canyon, Arlington Springs Man, Land Bridge, Bering Strait Theory, Huaca Prieta Courtesy National Park Service
The Vail & Vickers House on Santa Rosa Island. Workers renovating it recently uncovered ancient spear points and fishhooks.

In order to properly excavate the site, the house had to be lifted up off the ground, and they quickly discovered distinctive stone spearheads known as a "Channel Island barbed point," and a crescent fishhook, indicating the site was ancient. Jon Erlandson, professor of Anthropology at the University of Oregon and director of the Oregon State Museum of Anthropology, stated, "Usually, when we find the two of them together, the site is at least 10,000 years old and could be 12,000 years old or older."

Although the ancient archaeological site has not yet been dated, Erlandson notes that, "The northern Channel Islands have one of the largest and most significant clusters of early coastal sites in the Americas with more than 100 sites over 7,500 years old." In 1959 ancient bones were discovered from a gully in Arlington Canyon on Santa Rosa Island. Dubbed "Arlington Springs Man," the bones were dated to be more than 13,000 years old, making them the oldest human remains found in North America. Even though the sea level then was lower than that of today, and the Channel Islands were connected to form one large island, it was still far enough offshore to have required sophisticated maritime technology to reach. The find caused a major stir, leading to speculation that the earliest Indians arrived by boat, and not by walking across a land bridge.

The island's ancient archaeological sites originally gave credence to the claim that the first Americans sailed down the Pacific Coast from Asia, but later discoveries of more ancient archaeological sites on the coast of South America, including the recently dated Huaca Prieta site in coastal Peru, which is 2,000 years older than the oldest Santa Rosa site, tend to refute this idea.

Heralding new cooperative relationships between Indians and scientists, Chumash elders are involved in the excavation at Santa Rosa alongside the National Park Service archaeologists. Julie Tumamait-Stenslie, a Chumash elder, said, "This is part of our cultural heritage here," and the excavation provides the opportunity for "our children's children's children to see, appreciate, admire and know how brilliant our people are."

The new spirit of openness is refreshing for archaeology, a field that was dogmatically closed to all outside influences just a few years ago. "We've learned a lot in the last 10 or 20 years," Erlandson stated, adding that, "we still have a tremendous amount to learn."

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https://www.indianz.com/News/2017/11/08/trump-administration-sets-up-roadblocks.asp
Indianz.com, November 8, 2017

Trump administration sets up roadblocks as tribes call for return of sacred items

Efforts to repatriate tribal property and even tribal ancestors are hitting roadblocks within the Trump administration.

As a member of Congress, Secretary Ryan Zinke co-sponsored a resolution that called for the return of tribal items to their rightful place. But now that he's in charge of the Department of the Interior, the situation has shifted.

The new administration, for example, is refusing to take a position on a new cultural protection bill that expands on the legislation Zinke supported just last year. A senior Bureau of Indian Affairs official said the Trump team wants to wait for the results of further study even as tribal leaders called for more immediate action.

"We want to get it right," John Tahsuda, a citizen of the Kiowa Tribe, who serves as the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs for the Trump administration, said at a hearing on Capitol Hill on Wednesday afternoon.

Tahsuda's testimony before the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs was met with resistance from tribal leaders. Given the ongoing sales of sacred cultural items in international markets, Governor Kurt Riley of the Pueblo of Acoma could think of no reason for anyone to wait for the Government Accountability Office study, a process that could take many months to complete.

"These cultural items are continuing to leave and go across the seas to be sold," Riley said. "Should we wait for the GAO report? In my opinion, actions can be taken now without the GAO report."

But that wasn't the only area of concern raised during the hearing. Tahsuda confirmed that Zinke put a hold on a key advisory panel that was established by Congress to ensure compliance with the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act.

The NAGPRA Review Committee, which consists of tribal officials, spiritual leaders and other experts, hasn't met since March, the same month Zinke was confirmed to his Cabinet post. The Trump administration canceled a meeting that was to take place in July and hasn't appointed any new members while Interior conducts, in essence, a review of the review committee. "We wanted to make sure the committee was operating with in the law and the membership adequately reflected what the law intended," Tahusda said. The review is not specific to NAGPRA, as all advisory committees at the department are undergoing the same review. And the federal employees who handle NAGPRA grants and notices continue to carry out their duties.

But Sen. Tom Udall (D-New Mexico) said the freeze is hindering efforts to return sacred items to their rightful place. Without clear U.S. law or policy, officials in France, where tribal items are regularly put up for action, have refused to return such items, he pointed out. "How can the department adequately enforce NAGPRA when Secretary Zinke put the review committee on hiatus, indefinitely?" asked Udall, who serves as the vice chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs.

In hopes of addressing impasses at the international level, Udall and other lawmakers are pushing for passage of S.1400, the Safeguarding Tribal Objects of Patrimony Act. The bill bars the export of items that are otherwise covered, in the U.S., by NAGPRA and other cultural protection laws. The STOP Act enjoys bipartisan support -- six of the nine co-sponsors are Republicans. While the Trump administration's silence on the bill might not hinder passage, it isn't helping either, advocates argued.

"I think it would enhance our culture and heritage, especially for our youth," Dave Flute, the chairman of the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate, said in describing the need for the bill. Native languages, for example, are "strongly connected to tribal artifacts and those sacred objects that are out on the black market, or on different types of websites, for sale," Flute said. Last year, Sioux tribes were unable to prevent the sale of a warrior shirt in France.

Repatriation is extremely personal for tribes and their citizens. They are able to utilize NAGPRA to reclaim ancestors that were removed -- sometimes inadvertently but in many cases, not -- from their resting places. Items used in ceremonies and other practices can also be repatriated under the 1990 law.

But once any items leave the U.S., it's virtually impossible to get them back, Governor Riley of Acoma said. With the help of members of Congress and the Obama administration, his tribe was able to stop the sale of an important shield in France last year.

Though the tribe produced evidence that the shield was stolen from its territory in New Mexico during the 1970s, the government France has so far refused to return it. Since U.S. law did not bar the export of the item, officials in France believe it was legally acquired by someone in their country.
"The shield must come home," Riley said on Wednesday.

Senate Committee on Indian Affairs Notice:
Legislative Hearing to Receive Testimony on S. 1400 & S. 465 (November 8, 2017)
https://www.indianz.com/m.asp?url=https://www.indian.senate.gov/hearing/legislative-hearing-receive-testimony-s-1400-s-465

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http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-met-northwestern-mummy-argonne-20171122-story.html
Chicago Tribune, November 28, 2017

Researchers unraveling mummy mysteries with help from powerful Argonne X-ray

By Patrick M. O'Connell
Chicago Tribune

Inside a sprawling research building at Argonne National Laboratory, a collection of scientists, researchers and art curators assembled Monday to unravel the mysteries of a mummy.

The ancient Roman-Egyptian linen-wrapped remains of a 5-year-old girl, including an embedded portrait, were unearthed in Hawara, Egypt, in 1911. The mummy, about 1,800 years old and weighing 50 pounds, is from the collection of Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary on the Northwestern University campus. Northwestern researchers have been piecing together her story.

That's how the mummy ended up inside the thick steel doors of the research hutch at Argonne, where the high-energy, brilliant and penetrating X-ray beams from the Advanced Photon Source synchrotron will be able to provide unprecedented details about her components.

The high-powered beams of the Argonne machine will give researchers molecular information about what is inside the mummy, including the girl's bones, burial materials and what has become of her remains. The powerful synchrotron allows scientists a noninvasive way of probing the mummy, offering snapshots of its contents at a near-atomic level.

"That's what we're trying to do with all this analysis, to unpack who this person was," said Marc Walton, a Northwestern materials science and engineering research professor who has been extensively studying the mummy. "We're trying to construct the narrative."

New level of scrutiny

The mummy traveled to Argonne in a heavy wooden crate, accompanied by form-fitting padding and protective straps. She was placed inside the radiation enclosure of the research room, where the 1/110th-of-an-inch beam, which Stock describes as a "pencil beam," penetrated the materials of the mummy. Stock and Jonathan Almer, a lab technician at Argonne, then looked at the readout from the X-ray detector to examine the structure of the defraction patterns -- the fingerprint of the material hit by the X-ray beam.

By studying the linen wrappings, the skeleton, other matter inside the wrapping and the external portrait, researchers can try to determine what materials were used and where they came from. Identifying and tracing the materials shines light on the culture, trade networks and commerce in the Roman Empire of the late first and early second centuries.

In August, the mummy underwent a CT scan at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. The scan enabled researchers to confirm the mummy girl was about 5 years old, giving researchers a preliminary understanding of the mummy's composition and structure. It also pinpointed specific areas to be studied further with the help of the Argonne equipment.

And because child mummies are unusual, researchers also are hoping the new examination will reveal more about why the girl may have been preserved in such a manner.

Mummy portraits

The mummy is one of about 100 worldwide with a painted portrait embedded in the wrapping above where the head would be, a style introduced by the Romans. The analysis also will provide clues about Roman-Egyptian mummy portraits, a style that differs from the more familiar Egyptian mummies, which featured three-dimensional sculpture-style faces in an idealized form.

"She's really quite rare," said Essi Ronkko, a curatorial associate at the Block Museum of Art at Northwestern. "You don't get to study a mummy like this often. This is invaluable because it's a fully intact mummy."

Ronkko said she stumbled on the presence of the mummy at the Styberg Library reference room when researching the art museum's upcoming exhibit on mummy portraits. She worked with others at the university to incorporate her into the exhibit and helped launch additional research with Walton, Stock and Taco Terpstra, assistant professor of classics and history.

The mummy is often referred to as the Hibbard mummy and also as Hawara Portrait Mummy No. 4. The mummy made its way to Evanston after it was given to Lydia Beekman Hibbard as a gift for providing financial support to archaeologist Flinders Petrie's excavations in a Roman cemetery in Hawara. She donated the mummy a year later to what was then Western Theological Seminary of Chicago.

Affixing the mummies with a portrait "is a decidedly Roman phenomenon," Walton said. "So being able to study one and find out more about how it was made and used in the Roman period is very important."

Walton and Terpstra taught an interdisciplinary course, "Materials Science and Socioeconomics of Portrait Mummies from Ancient Fayum," in which students researched the mummy's discovery and how it made its way to Evanston. They also analyzed the mummy's materials, examined the portrait for clues about how and why it was made and studied the techniques used to compose the portrait.

The portraits are lifelike depictions of a person's face, but researchers have questions about what exactly they were meant to represent. In the case of the mummy girl, the accompanying portrait appears to be of an older girl or young woman. Walton and Terpstra offer possible theories: that it was a depiction of her mother or aunt, that it was a painting selected at random, or that it was meant to represent what the family envisioned the young girl looking like if she would have grown older.

Researchers do not know how the girl died, but since there were no signs of trauma on the remains, it appears she likely perished from disease. Terpstra said the three most likely culprits would have been malaria, tuberculosis and smallpox, which had just appeared during the second century. He ruled out leprosy, which would have shown up on the skeleton, he said. Life expectancy at the time was about 25 years, Terpstra said, and only about half of all children made it to age 10.

Researchers believe the girl was wrapped naked in the linen and was probably not wearing a dress when she was prepared for mummification.

This is the first time the advanced technology was used on a mummy, according to Argonne. The synchrotron, which is about 1 kilometer around, allows for the study of the arrangement of molecules and atoms. It has been used in pharmaceutical research, including the development of a drug used to stop the progression of HIV into AIDS and to study a bone of Sue, the famed dinosaur at the Field Museum.

"This will tell us about the history of the mummy and also tell us some things about its conservation," said Stuart Stock, a cell and molecular biology research professor at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine who helped lead the experiment at Argonne, which is near Lemont. "We really hope this will open a new chapter in how we study these objects."

Northwestern researchers want to learn more about how the girl died and how she was prepared after death. Stock said researchers are particularly interested in the ceramic-like material that is inside of the girl's intact skull.

The mummy was examined for more than 15 hours, with researchers monitoring the results of the synchrotron overnight. Early results, Stock said, showed the material inside the skull did not appear to be crystalline. Stock was also able to detect wires embedded in the mummy and the enamel and bone of the teeth. The girl's bones looked as expected, he said.

"We can't do this with any other technique," Walton said. "We're really pioneering new methods of looking at the intact objects without having to take an actual sample of them."

Researchers have not been given permission to take samples from the mummy, but they also want to preserve her for future examinations.

Art and science collide

The mummy will be included in an upcoming art exhibit "Paint the Eyes Softer: Mummy Portraits From Roman Egypt" at the university's Block Museum of Art. The exhibit, which is free to the public, begins Jan. 13 and runs through April 22. Student research will be included in the exhibition.

The exhibition will present Roman-Egyptian mummy portraits and related artifacts from the site of ancient Tebtunis in Egypt, near Hawara. Most of the objects in the exhibition are on loan from the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley, which holds one of the largest collections of mummy portraits from a single site in the world. The Hibbard mummy will complement the other portraits and objects and help provide context for the exhibition.

The mummy portraits "look like us," said Lisa Corrin, director of the Block Museum of Art.

"When we see them, they look like people that we know," Corrin said. The portraits also "remind us of our own mortality."

"They have such potency," she said.

Studying the art aspect of the mummy, Corrin said, can help determine how pigments found in one part of the world ended up on a portrait in another part of the world.

"This is material proof of how far-flung the empire was," Corrin said.

The interdisciplinary research of the mummy, she said, also helps tie together the worlds of art, science and history.

"They're learning that discovering about history is not just about reading a book or researching documents, and that science has a place in the world," Corrin said. "We can learn a tremendous amount about the past, and learning what these portraits were made of can tell us a tremendous amount about the people that made them and what their world was like."

==============

(2) Native Hawaiians on vacation in Paris, France protest an announcement of an auction of 1100 Native Hawaiian artifacts scheduled Aguttes Auction House. (2 articles)

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http://www.guampdn.com/story/news/2017/04/25/pago-bay-park-serve-monument-ancestral-remains/100873042/
Pacific Daily News [Guam], April 25, 2017

Pago Bay park to serve as monument for ancestral remains

by John I Borja, jborja@guampdn.com

A public park will be built as a reburial monument for 11 ancestral remains discovered at the Pago Bay development site a decade ago.

The park -- Fanhafutan i Manaina-ta Guini Gi P�gu, which roughly translates to the burial site of ancestors in Pago Bay -- will be constructed to the right of the entrance of the Pago Bay Resort, a gated community of multi-family homes in Yona.

The property owner for Pago Bay Resort contracted the developer of Pago Bay Ocean Resort, a nearby planned condominium, to take on the reburial project. The developer is working with the Guam Department of Parks and Recreation and Hurao Academy to create the reburial monument.

The $20,000 park is expected to be 30 feet wide and 70 feet long, according to Barbara Burkhardt, design manager of AES, a company working on the Pago Bay Ocean Resort. The park will include two burial vaults and a section for artwork to be commissioned with a local artist, she said.

One of the burial vaults will be used specifically for the 11 ancestral remains, which are currently with the archaeological firm. The other burial vault will be used for other remains that may be found as development in the area progresses, Burkhardt said.

Elements of the park were conceptualized with the help of Anna Marie Arceo, president of Hurao Academy and consultant for the project. Arceo has worked with Burkhardt on the project since last September.

The park will include some of the plants found on the land during the archaeological survey, Arceo said, including the pagu, or wild hibiscus tree, and a yam field, she said.

"I represent my people with all heart in this project," Arceo said. "We will do what's right to re-inter (the ancestral remains). ... I'm just taking it from the standpoint that they need to be laid to rest, just like so many other remains that have been found that have not been re-interred."

Burkhardt said she expects the project to be near completion by the late July or early August. The artwork for the park will take additional time, she added.

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http://www.kitv.com/story/35029893/protest-against-native-hawaiian-items-up-for-auction-in-paris
KITV, March 29, 2017

Protest against Native Hawaiian items up for auction in Paris

** Article on TV website Includes video, and photos of several individual artifacts

A private collection of Native Hawaiian items will soon be up for auction at the Aguttes Auction House in Paris, France.

The news has upset some Hawaiians, who took a stand in the city of light.

At the front entrance of the auction house Wednesday, a group of Hawaii residents protested the upcoming auction. They are questioning how a collector acquired certain items and whether the collector received consent to posses them.

"All we wanted was for the sellers to provide us with the documentation that demonstrated that these were actually legitimate Hawaiian objects that were collected lawfully," said Edward Halealoha Ayau.

The items in question are part of the private collection belonging to Rainer Werner Bock. It includes a wooden spear said to be found by Captain Cook, a 19th century Hawaiian flag and Pahu drum, among many others.

The French auction house said it will auction over 1,100 of these native items, saying it's the biggest collection of Hawaiian artifacts outside the Bishop Museum.

"All we asked them to do was prove the provenience of these items. Prove that you had consent to collect them and if you have them, then you're free to do with them what you please," said Ayau.

State Representative Kaniela Ing chairs the House Hawaiian Affairs committee, he applauds the protesters for taking a stand.

"If these artifacts are the real deal its vital that we bring them home now so that all people of Hawaii can enjoy them in perpetuity and continue on our culture and heritage," said Ing.

Ayau admits they managed to get a hold of a representative from the auction house and had a meeting set up, but the auction house canceled a day later. He adds, all they want is to educate the auction house about the deep meaning and connection these items represents.

"The items are part of our living culture. There's value associated, practices associated with these objects and to ignore living Hawaiians is challenging," said Ayau.

The items be up for action April 5-7.

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http://www.staradvertiser.com/2017/04/06/features/oha-criticizes-auction-of-old-hawaiian-artifacts/?HSA=64bbcd3e643cb43bc4bd76f8bc228424d6315dd8
HonoluluStar-Advertiser, April 6, 2017

OHA criticizes auction of Hawaiian artifacts

By Timothy Hurley

The Office of Hawaiian Affairs is condemning the Paris auction of what is being billed as the world's largest private collection of Hawaiian art and will ask the seller to stop or delay the sale in order to negotiate a "morally appropriate resolution."

The OHA Board of Trustees "objects to the commodification and sensationalism of the willful and wanton sale of such a large collection of the material history of the Native Hawaiian people as aesthetic art and curiosities," says a resolution approved Wednesday by the board's Beneficiary Advocacy and Empowerment Committee.

The resolution, approved by a 7-0 vote, is expected to be endorsed by the full nine-member board when it meets today.

French auction house Aguttes is auctioning off nearly 1,100 items in a sale that began Wednesday and is scheduled to run through Friday.

"Never before have so many Hawaiian objects been brought together outside of the Bishop Museum in Honolulu," says promotional material for the event.

Up for auction is a spear, estimated to be worth about $80,000 and said to be acquired by Capt. James Cook during his third and last visit to Hawaii in 1779, and a war helmet, estimated to be worth $60,000 and described as being part of a collection assembled by one of the first French scientific expeditions to Hawaii and formerly displayed by a French University.

Other items include an 8-inch black, red and yellow feathered necklace, a war helmet, a flag from the Kingdom of Hawaii, fishhooks and a war drum. There are numerous other items from islands across the South Pacific.

The collector of "The Treasures of Oceanic Art" is Rainer Warner "Jerry" Bock, who is described as one of the world's leading dealers in pre-Columbian art and who compiled Hawaiian items over two decades.

Bock is either a current or former Maui resident and gallery owner who, according to records, has run businesses registered in Honolulu, including Splendors of the World Inc. and Haiku Fine Arts LLC.

Last week a handful of Native Hawaiian protesters on vacation in Paris picketed the auction house, where the items were on display for a week before the sale. In one video post on social media, the sign-holding protesters said they were skeptical about the legitimacy of the artifacts and were not getting a lot of reassurances from the auction house.

According to its resolution, OHA is requesting that Aguttes suspend and delay the auction and enter into "immediate discussions, consultations and negotiations" with OHA to bring about "a reasonable, just and morally appropriate resolution and disposition for the benefit of all parties."

Auctioneer Claude Aguttes did not respond to an email request for comment Wednesday.

State Rep. Kaniela Ing (D, South Maui) applauded OHA for taking a stand.

Ing said that while he respects the property rights of private collectors, just anything "acquired" from Hawaii pre-contact era is essentially stolen.

"Ideally I'd like another collector to buy the whole thing and donate it to the Bishop Museum," he said. "I guess that's wishful thinking."

Ing said he contacted OHA and the Bishop Museum and neither institution has funds to acquire the artifacts.

Ing, the chairman of the House Committee on Ocean, Marine Resources and Hawaiian Affairs, said he would look into what it would take to establish a fund in the state budget earmarked for such a purpose.

OHA last year engineered the return to Hawaii of the feathered cloak and helmet that Hawaii island chief Kalaniopuu presented to Cook in 1779. They had ended up in a New Zealand Museum but they are now on indefinite loan to the Bishop Museum.

"These last vestiges of the Native Hawaiian material culture hold great and priceless meaning to the identity, heritage and cultural survival of the Native Hawaiian people," OHA's resolution says.

According to the resolution, OHA is concerned that some of the artifacts may contain human bone or teeth or that others may have questionable provenance.

Promotional material for the auction quotes Bock as saying, "I owe this auction to my friend Claude Aguttes. He came to see me one day, and just said: let these objects go; watch them scatter all over the world, like birds carrying a message of the intrinsic beauty of art from the Southern Seas, and evidence of your eye and taste."

It also asserts that he's worked to open a museum on Maui but was not supported by local politicians.

But, according to OHA, the agency has no record of any consultation, proposal, discussion or communications with its office regarding this claim.

===============

(3) On Kaua'i, a controversial lengthy paved coastal path used for bicycling and hiking passes through an area where there are ancient burials. The path detoured around some of them, and an above-ground crypt was erected to contain burials which were moved. [See articles from previous years in this compilation covering this controversy, focusing on whether the path should run farther from the shoreline]

http://thegardenisland.com/news/local/multi-use-path-planned-around-burial-sites/article_b1b56f13-7a76-5e5a-8b90-a2adf8310f3c.html
The Garden Island [Kaua'i], Friday, August 18, 2017

Multi-use path planned around burial sites

by Jessica Else - The Garden Island

WAIPOULI -- Connecting the Ke Ala Hele Makalae coastal path from Kapaa Town to Lydgate Park is a step toward the project's full vision, according to organizers.

And study of the 1.1 mile-long section, known as the Waipouli Connector, has encountered multiple burial plots and cultural sites along the route over the last several years.

The latest two were were discovered in 2014, along with three cultural deposit sites according to Michael Dega, principal investigator for SCS Archaeology, the organization contracted for consultation on the project's burial treatment plan.

"The one on the north side was within the pathway so the path was designed around the burial," Dega said. "It's preserved in place and they moved the bike path."

The second burial plot was previously disturbed and is on Kauai Shores Hotel property. The path's design avoids both burial sites, and Dega said the closest the path's projectile comes within the burials is seven feet.

"This isn't a new concern, it's been under discussion for several years now," said Tommy Noyes, with the educational organization Kauai Path. "Standard protocols should be followed for the respectful avoidance of burial sites." As construction continues on the path, inadvertent finds are a possibly, consultants and organizers of the project say, and an above-ground crypt has been created near the location of the path to re-intern those remains.

The path's planned route goes from Kauai Shores Hotel to Islander on the Beach, and goes through a state historic preservation archeological site which has Native Hawaiian cultural deposits. The projected path also goes through Coconut Plantation Village Resort's undeveloped land, which has required a 100-foot shoreline setback. The county is seeking a Special Management Area permit and a Shoreline Setback Variance permit for the project.

And though the path has been moved to avoid the burial sites, some are questioning the positioning of the new route, because they say it's too close to the ocean and it treks through an archeological site.

"When they moved the path, they moved it seaward and I think there's enough leeway to move it mauka," said Rayne Regush, chairwoman of Wailua-Kapaa Neighborhood Center. She continued: "It creates more of a buffer for the culture when you move development inland." Risks to the landscape, potential loss of cultural and traditional shoreline uses, and potential flooding issues are some of the reasons Regush says the path should be moved toward the mountain. "It seems that the county is minimizing the consequences of building the path too close to the shoreline," Regush said. "The path is a legacy for the future, but only if it is place in the best possible location." Acting County Engineer Lyle Tabata confirmed the path was moved south, parallel to the ocean, in order to avoid the burial site. But, he did not answer further questions about the decision to relocate the path toward makai instead of mauka.

Connecting the Waipouli Path segment -- formally known as the Lydgate Park-Kapaa Bike/Pedestrian Path, Phase C&D -- is an important piece of the overall path plan, organizers say. It connects the section of the pathway that ends at the Waiopili Beach Resort and the other completed section that ends at the south edge of the Coconut Market Place parking lot. "The strong attraction is the connection between Lydgate Park as a regional park and the Kapaa population center," Noyes said. "It's a matter of importance to complete the connection between those two segments."

A meeting to inform the community on the plan has been slated for 2 p.m. Saturday at the Kapaa Public Library and the public is invited to hear updates from county building division chief, Dough Haigh.

================

http://www.staradvertiser.com/2017/08/20/features/author-links-kamehameha-to-murder-in-hawaiis-dynastic-wars/
Honolulu Star-Advertiser, August 20, 2017

Author links Kamehameha to murder in Hawaii's dynastic wars

By Mindy Pennybacker

Wrapped in mystery and the mists of time, it's a place where the ancient gods were summoned to witness a terrible deed. Approaching from the sea, it's still a forbidding sight: the dark silhouette of Puukohola heiau, its stone walls massed along a hilltop, dominating Kawaihae Bay on Hawaii island.

In the late 18th century, the luakini (sacrificial) heiau above the beach would have been among the last sights seen by the young warrior-king Keouakuahuula, the legitimate heir to Hawaii island, as his canoe came in for a landing, before he was killed by the soldiers of his rival, Kamehameha.

There were rumors even then that, in the heiau, which he had just expanded and dedicated to his war god, Kukailimoku, Kamehameha's priests practiced the dark art of sorcery. They had predicted that if Kamehameha restored Puukohola, his hitherto flagging fortunes would reverse and make him king of Hawaii.

Keoua's corpse was borne up the hill to the heiau and sacrificed on an altar in dedication rites for the newly completed temple. His remains were purified in an imu before being deified, as befit an uppermost alii, then buried in a secret place.

To all that, most historians agree. But as to how and why Keoua was killed -- and where he was buried -- there are differences of opinion. Most have absolved Kamehameha of guilt, but in his new book, "Lord of the Haao Rain" ($100, Kalaiopua Publishing), local writer Irving Jenkins cries murder most foul.

"This is part of Big Island history that's been suppressed: Kamehameha deliberately killed his younger cousin, who was the last ruling chief of the senior Keawe dynasty," Jenkins said. "It's been covered up!" he added, his voice rising with emotion as if he were talking about the murder of a contemporary, someone he knew, in a political conspiracy. The cover-up persists to this day, insists the Hilo-born author of the award-winning books "The Hawaiian Calabash" and "Hawaiian Furniture and Hawaii's Cabinetmakers 1820-1940." "No one wants to talk about it. That's why I decided to write a book," said Jenkins, a boyish, bespectacled septuagenarian.

He also goes against consensus by setting Keoua's date of death as 1789, not 1791. That was when Keoua's younger twin, Keouapeeale, was killed by Kamehameha, he maintains. "Historians got confused because they were both called Keoua."

HABEAS CORPUS

There is more mystery.

More than 100 years later, along that stark coast dominated by Puukohola, three explorers searched along a dry streambed known as Honokoa Gulch. Finding the partially sealed opening to a lava tube in a cliff, they entered and crawled through pitch-black tunnels into a chamber where, by wavering candlelight, they found an imposing mummified figure, wrapped in fine kapa cloth and lying in state on a stone platform in a canoe-coffin covered by a surfboard.

A resplendent red feather cloak lay nearby.

"We measured those mummy remains and found the body to be 6 feet, 7 inches in height," wrote the leader of the 1905 expedition, David Forbes.

The identity of this personage has never been established, but Jenkins argues in his book that it is Keouakuahuula.

He was not buried entirely alone; other skeletons were found in an adjoining cave, as were dozens of priceless artifacts carved from wood and bone.

The Forbes party took the portable items -- not the canoe, cape or surfboard -- and several bundles of human remains from the Kawaihae Caves Complex, also called Forbes Caves.

Jenkins argues the arrangement of the burial chamber and the unmatched fineness of the artifacts are proof the corpse belonged to Keouakuahuula, the highest-ranking alii living on the Big Island at the time.

In a 1991 report filed after surveying the caves for the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands, Honolulu archaeologists Hallett Hammatt and David Shideler surmised the red feather cape could have belonged to Keoua. "It seems probable," they wrote, "that (the artifacts) were all used in the rituals in which Keoua Kuahu'ulu was effectively prayed to death."

Ross Cordy, a professor of Hawaiian and Pacific Islands studies at the University of Hawaii-West Oahu, said he agrees with Jenkins' argument.

"All those things point to a high chief," said Cordy, who helped edit Jenkins' book without pay. "These were amazing art objects made by master craftsmen, clearly for a super high-ranking person."

Jenkins makes a convincing case that this person was Keoua and a murder victim, Cordy said. "Kamehameha was the usurper. Keoua was the rightful heir."

But Roger Rose, a former ethnographer with Bishop Museum, disagrees. "I think Irv jumped to conclusions. We can never know who is buried there," he said.

Rose agrees, however, that the remains were not of a lesser chief. Others have suggested Mahi, a konohiki (steward) of Kawaihae, based on a 19th-century oral history and a Chinese fan and porcelain, found in the caves, that may date from Kamehameha's sandalwood trade.

Jenkins' book does not touch on the modern-day disputes over classification of the artifacts and their disposition. (See story, right.)

KEOUA'S STORY

As the author writes in "Lord of the Haao Rain," Keoua was a son of Kalaniopuu, king of Hawaii island. He was "born a warrior and famous for the beauty of his features and physique," Jenkins quotes from historian Stephen Desha. After the deaths of his father and elder brother, the heir to the throne, the young Keoua became chief of Kau, Puna, Hamakua and Hilo.

His full name means "the raining cloud." In his ancestral kingdom of Kau, where there were no natural streams to irrigate crops, rain was truly life-giving. In his book, Jenkins cites a fragment of a kanikau, a mourning chant, for Keoua that was published by Mary Kawena Pukui, a Kau native and foremost authority on Hawaiian culture and language, in 1949:

"My Lord of the Haao Rain/ The rains fly on the wind/ Over the plain of flying rains � Tears for my chief/ Drop down on the people."

Kamehameha was from a junior Keawe line, a nephew who grew up in the king's household. After the deaths of the king and Keoua's older brother, he attacked Keoua in Puna and Kau. Although Kamehameha's warriors used Western firearms and a cannon -- a first in Hawaiian warfare -- they were defeated by Keoua's forces.

The humiliated Kamehameha sued for peace, inviting Keoua to meet him at Kawaihae.

While approaching Pelekane Beach in his double-hulled canoe, Keoua caught and hurled back spears thrown at him by Kamehameha's men in the traditional kalii rite. However, during this game he was killed by a stone to his head from a slingshot and/or by being stabbed by Kamehameha's men.

Kamehameha then eliminated the remaining legitimate claimants by killing Keoua's younger twin and capturing Keopuolani, Keoua's niece and heir to the throne. She bore several children fathered by Kamehameha, starting with Liholiho (Kamehameha II).

STARTING A CONVERSATION

History has been kinder to Kamehameha than he deserves, Jenkins writes. Most historians report that Keoua was killed by rogue warriors acting without their chief's knowledge and against his will.

At least one historian, Abraham Fornander, saw things differently. "It is impossible to acquit Kamehameha in the cruel death of Keoua," he wrote in "Ancient History of the Hawaiian People to the Times of Kamehameha I.," first published in 1877. "The deed was a cruel wrong and foul murder, and posterity will so designate it."

In the end, whether it was Keoua's corpse in the caves or not, it almost doesn't matter. The tale's the thing, and Jenkins has turned a long-dead, nearly forgotten prince into the dashing hero of a thrilling saga that recasts a chapter of Hawaiian history. What he wanted was to start a conversation, Jenkins said. "Lord of the Haao Rain" should do that, at the very least.

ROYAL RANSOM

The artifacts retrieved from the Kawaihae caves -- objects of wood, shell, stone and bone, and fragments of featherwork, fiber and cloth -- are shown in photographs and discussed in detail in Irving Jenkins' new book, "Lord of the Haao Rain." They include two carved wooden figures standing on staves; bowls shaped with human features; a bowl inlaid with marine ivory and human teeth; a game board supported by two kneeling human figures; and two female statuettes, crowned with human hair.

The latter are "probably the best carving of all Hawaiian objects," according to Roger Rose, former curator for the ethnology collection at Bishop Museum, where he worked for 29 years.

Eighty-three of the artifacts are stored at Bishop Museum, which originally acquired them, along with some associated human remains, from members of the Forbes party in the early 20th century.

In 2000, a Bishop Museum official turned over 83 artifacts and human remains to Hui Malama I Na Kupuna O Hawai'i Nei, a nonprofit organization dedicated to repatriation of Native Hawaiian remains and burial items. Hui Malama reburied the artifacts and remains in the Kawaihae caves.

A 2005 lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Honolulu by Na Lei Alii Kawananakoa, founded by Campbell Estate heiress Abigail Kawananakoa, and the Royal Hawaiian Academy of Traditional Arts sought the return of the artifacts to the museum.

The federal court ordered Hui Malama to return the objects, but the remains were allowed to stay in the caves.

Bishop Museum is safeguarding the artifacts until claimants under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act come to an agreement regarding their classification and where they should be placed, museum management confirmed in an email.

Hawaii Volcanoes National Park is holding five artifacts, including a female figure and the game board, that were donated by the daughter of David Forbes in 1956.

The park has classified them as "unassociated funerary objects" under the federal law, meaning the park doesn't possess the associated human remains and the objects are in the process of being repatriated, said Laura Schuster, division chief for cultural resources at HVNP.

** Photo captions

COURTESY NATIONAL PARK SERVICE Puukohola heiau, its stone walls massed along a hilltop, dominates Kawaihae Bay on Hawaii island.

CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARADVERTISER.COM "No one wants to talk about it. That's why I decided to write a book," said Irving Jenkins, right, author of "Lord of the Haao Rain."

** Note from Ken Conklin: See an earlier webpage I wrote in 2003 summarizing the Forbes Cave controversy, including a compilation of important articles published in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin in year 2000 plus photos of some of the artifacts, at
https://www.angelfire.com/hi2/hawaiiansovereignty/nagpraforbes.html

=============

(5) The Museum of Ethnology in Dresden Germany is returning human bones that were stolen from burial caves in Hawaii during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/story/36661689/german-state-returns-human-bones-stolen-from-hawaii-caves
Hawaii News Now (3 TV stations), Monday October 23, 2017
Germany returns iwi stolen from Hawaii caves
Also
http://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/news/state/state-briefs-october-24-0
Hawaii Tribune-Herald, October 24, 2017 [Hilo]
German state to returns bones stolen from caves
Also
http://westhawaiitoday.com/news/state-wire/german-state-returns-human-bones-stolen-hawaii-caves
West Hawaii Today, October 24, 2017 [Kona]
German state returns human bones stolen from Hawaii caves

BERLIN (AP) - The eastern German state of Saxony says it is returning human bones that were stolen from burial caves in Hawaii during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The Dresden State Art Collections said in a statement Monday that the bones of native Hawaiians were stolen between 1896 and 1902 and sold to the Museum of Ethnology in Dresden.

Working with Hawaiian representatives, experts established the provenance of the bones so they could be repatriated.

Saxony's science minister, Eva-Maria Stange, says that through their return "the human bones, hitherto regarded as 'objects', are rehumanized and their inherent individuality and human value is restored."

-----------

https://eturbonews.com/168727/dresden-museum-returns-stolen-human-remains-hawaiian-ancestors

"eTurboNews Communications is a public relations consultancy geared specifically to the needs of the travel and tourism industry. We provide a service of tailor-made PR solutions and advice on marketing and branding for large companies or small and medium-sized enterprises engaged in travel, transport or tourism related business."

Dresden museum returns stolen human remains to Hawaiian ancestors

By Juergen T Steinmetz -- October 26, 201701811

Human Remains Hawaii

Today, for the first time in its history, the Free State of Saxony has returned human remains to representatives of the remains' country of origin. The remains were stolen from burial caves in Hawai'i between 1896 and 1902 and were sold directly to the Museum of Ethnology in Dresden and Arthur Baessler, a patron of the museum. Between 1896 and 1904, they became part of the anthropological collection of the Museum of Ethnology in Dresden, which, since 2010, belongs to the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden (Dresden State Art Collections).

When these human remains were removed from their final resting place for the collection one hundred years ago, the deceased were transformed into objects. Now the museum itself is reversing the process of dehumanization; i.e., these remains are being rehumanized by not only being designated as objects with inventory numbers but as deceased individuals.

The rehumanization of these human remains, combined with an intensive provenance research and a close, trustworthy collaboration of the SKD with the representatives of the Hui Mālama I Nā Kūpuna 'O Hawai'i Nei � Group caring for the ancestors of Hawai'i and the Office of Hawaiian Affairs made today's return possible. The importance of this restitution for the Hawaiians was also shown by the fact that high-ranking representatives of Hawaiian organizations as well as the Economic Officer of the Embassy of the United States, Robert Folley, came to Dresden for the ceremony in the Japanisches Palais. The State Minister of Science and Art, Eva-Maria Stange, the Director-General of the Dresden State Art Collections, Marion Ackermann and the Director of the three ethnographic museums in the network of SKD, Nanette Snoep, took part in the ceremony.

The organization known as Hui Malama I Na Kupuna O Hawai'i Nei, headed by Edward Halealoha Ayau, has become very powerful in controlling the "repatriation" and re-interment of ancient Hawaiian bones and artifacts. It played a role in the writing and enactment of the NAGPRA law, partly because its leadership had important political connections with the office of U.S. Senator Dan Inouye, who is Chairman (or ranking member) of the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Indian Affairs whenever the Democrats (or Republicans) are in control of the Senate. Those political relationships have continued for at least fifteen years, and are still in play today. Hui Malama also gets hundreds of thousands of dollars in grants, partly because of those same political connections. But its leadership, operations, and budget are shrouded in mystery and secrecy, despite laws that require such matters to be open to regulatory and public scrutiny. It is unclear what Hui Malama does with the enormous amounts of money it gets, and also unclear what happens with all the bones and artifacts it "repatriates." Some of those artifacts would be extremely valuable if sold in the (often shady) antiquities markets.

Eva-Maria Stange, Minister of State for Science and Art of the Free State of Saxony: "In Saxony, we have agreed that 'human remains', however they may have come to us, will be returned to those ethnic groups from which they originate. Before the return, the history of how the remains were collected has to be illustrated clearly and has to be accompanied by a careful legal process. With the return of human remains to Hawai'i, which takes place today, an inglorious chapter closes for the Free State of Saxony. At the same time a new page is opened in dealing with human remains in museums: with respect and acknowledgment and appreciation of cultural and religious traditions the human bones, hitherto regarded as 'objects', are rehumanized, and they retain the intrinsic individuality and human dignity. "

Marion Ackermann, Director-General of the Dresden State Art Collections, places today's return within the current discussion and explains: "Ethnological museums worldwide are increasingly becoming the focal point of critical discussions. The debate on questions of the provenance of "ethnographic objects" acquired or stolen in the colonial context, as well as the restitution of human remains to the descendants of the deceased, has been discussed to extreme lengths. This debate, however, often stagnates at the level of political positioning and lacks productive consequences. Restitution in the field of ethnological museums is often seen as an individual and final act, as an end in itself that could even threaten the survival of the collections and the research of a museum. On the contrary, we should regard it as an opportunity when human remains are returned back to their cultural context. This opens doors for cooperation, joint research projects and cultural cooperation."

Nanette Snoep, Director of the Museum of Ethnology Dresden, the Grassi Museum of Ethnology in Leipzig, and the Museum of Ethnology in Herrnhut: "Today we have returned the bones of ancestors to Hawai'i. They had a family, and their life story made them victims in the name of scientific research, colonialism and an unequal balance of power. These deceased were brought to Europe against the will of the societies where they originated. The void created by this has left painful and irreparable gaps: emotional, religious, spiritual, and historical. The mourning of the survivors has continued for generations. Restitution is a way for healing and justice. For the Iwi Kupuna, the bones of the ancestors, their journey home begins at last."

-------------------

http://www.staradvertiser.com/2017/10/29/hawaii-news/native-hawaiian-remains-arrive-home-after-100-years/?HSA=4865a87d485defbcdaa80468f952b163de9d4b3a
Honolulu Star-Advertiser, October 29, 2017

Native Hawaiian remains arrive home after 100 years

By Timothy Hurley

* Photo caption
The Museum of Ethnology in Dresden, Germany, transferred human remains Monday to a group of Native Hawaiian cultural practitioners that included Office of Hawaiian Affairs CEO Kamana'opono Crabbe, center, at a signing in Germany. To Crabbe's left is Dr. Birgit Scheps-Bretschneider of the Grassi Museum of Ethnology in Leipzig, Germany. In back are Edward Halealoha Ayau, an OHA liaison officer, left, and Sam Kaleikoa Ka'eo, a Hawaiian studies professor at Maui College, greeting each other with ha, or Hawaiian exchange of breath.

After more than a century away from the islands, human remains stolen from burial caves in Hawaii and sold to a museum in Germany have finally returned home.

Two skulls from Oahu and one skull and a jawbone from Hawaii island arrived in Honolulu late Thursday with Native Hawaiian cultural practitioners, including Kamana'opono Crabbe, CEO of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs.

The remains apparently were stolen by German ship captains between 1896 and 1902 and sold directly to the Museum of Ethnology in Dresden, where they have been held since.

The iwi kupuna, or skeletal remains, were formally transferred to the Hawaii group in an emotional ceremony Monday, concluding a 26-year campaign to bring them home by the former Big Island cultural group Hui Malama i na kupuna o Hawai'i nei.

"I feel relieved," said Edward Halealoha Ayau, the former Hui Malama executive director who led the effort. "I'm really ecstatic. We called the Germans out on their sense of humanity. We appealed to their nature and they responded in kind."

The event, he said, was especially significant because it marked the first time the east German state of Saxony, which owns the museum, repatriated human remains to representatives of the country where the remains originated.

What's more, the museum announced that it would launch repatriation talks with delegations from New Zealand, Easter Island and Namibia, and would be open to additional claims.

The museum also said it would work with Native Hawaiians to put together a collection of photographs featuring Hawaiian royalty during their visits to Germany.

During the ceremony, Crabbe acknowledged Saxony government and museum officials for making the repatriation happen.

"Their leadership is progressive and will reverberate throughout Germany and across Europe," he said, "and will hopefully usher in a new era of reconciliation and spiritual healing with native and indigenous peoples throughout the world."

Museum Director Nanette Snoep acknowledged the generations who were wronged and hoped the action would lead to healing.

"Today we have returned the bones of ancestors to Hawaii," Snoep said. "They had a family, and their life story made them victims in the name of scientific research, colonialism and an unequal balance of power."

Native Hawaiians traditionally believe that the mana, or the spiritual essence and power, of a person resides in the bones, or iwi. For many Native Hawaiians it is important for the bones of a deceased person to complete their journey and return to the ground to impart their mana.

The campaign to retrieve the bones began in 1991 after Hui Malama sent letters to 200 museums asking for the return of any human remains from Hawaii that might be in their collections. The museums were all in countries that sent ships to Hawaii.

The Dresden museum was one of the few institutions that acknowledged having remains from Hawaii, but officials refused to talk about giving them up, saying the remains were the property of the state of Saxony.

Ayau said Hui Malama continued to press its case over the years. The group sent numerous letters, researched German law, asked for help from the United Nations, approached the German Embassy and urged other sympathetic museum directors to send letters of support.

"We tried everything you could think of," he said.

In 2000, a delegation from Hawaii visited Dresden. The remains were not on display, and the museum refused to show them to the visitors.

"We had a horrible meeting with the director, who scolded us and told us it was a waste of time for us to be there," Ayau said.

What finally got their attention was an article Ayau co-authored in a German magazine in April, a critique of newly proposed German repatriation guidelines. After Ayau accused the Dresden museum of "intellectual savagery" in its repatriation dealings, the article's editor, from the University of Berlin, called the Saxony curator and asked why claims were being ignored.

It wasn't long, with Saxony government permission, before the Hawaiians were asked to enter into discussions about taking the remains home.

In total, Hui Malama has helped engineer 13 international repatriations since 1991 and 117 overall.

The group was dissolved in 2015 after concluding that it had fulfilled its original purpose of getting Hawaiian families involved in the effort. That left OHA as the Dresden claimant, with Ayau serving as a volunteer OHA liaison.

Ayau said he's now talking to a Berlin museum after learning in September about a collection of human remains and funerary objects there. Additionally, he said, he has a tip about remains in a Paris museum that he's going to investigate.

================

http://www.christies.com/features/A-Hawaiian-Kona-figure-of-Ku-ka-ili-moku-8705-3.aspx

Christies auction, Paris, November 21, 2017 [catalog tout]

An incredibly rare Hawaiian sculpture of the war god known as 'the island eater'

Carved some 200 years ago at the height of the islands' artistic production, figures such as this Kona effigy are almost unknown in private collections. Offered in Paris on 21 November, it left Susan Kloman, Head of African and Oceanic Art, lost for words

'When I first saw this figure I was astonished -- really speechless,' says Susan Kloman, Head of African and Oceanic Art at Christie's. 'We couldn't imagine that such a work could still exist in a private collection. The figures that we know are in museums, including what we consider the mate to this piece, which is in the British Museum.'

Offered on 21 November in the Collection V�rit� sale at Christie's in Paris, this Hawaiian figure was made sometime between 1780 and 1819 -- a period considered the height of Hawaiian artistic production.

That era in Hawaiian history is linked to the reign of Kamehameha I, called the 'unifier of the islands', Kloman explains. It was a turbulent time, and Kamehameha I associated himself with the war god Ku-ka'ili-moku -- the 'land snatcher' or 'island eater'.

'Ku became his effigy, and we saw a proliferation of these sculptures created for the temples,' the specialist says. As Hawaiian society at that time was highly stratified, the artists who were allowed to create these sculptures, for kings and queens, were effectively priests.

The figure was executed in a highly expressionistic style called Kona, here exemplified by a figure-eight-shaped mouth, distended eyes, and a head crest. When all these elements combine in a single piece, as in this figure, the result is 'extremely powerful', the specialist says.

Hawaiian figurative sculptures are incredibly rare, and Kloman and her team were meticulous in their verification of the piece. Authentication experts 'analysed every single detail of how this work was carved,' she explains. 'They also did a carbon-14 test, which gives a better indication of the age of the sculpture.' Analysis of the wood revealed it to be Metrosideros, a tree found in the high mountains of Hawaii.

'It's an incredible discovery,' Kloman says. 'This figure could stand on the world stage with any sculptures, and it would captivate and hold anyone's attention.'

** Ken Conklin's note: There's a spectacularly beautiful 3-minute video embedded in the webpage article, which you can also choose to view full-screen. Unfortunately I don't find any independent URL for the video; so go to
http://www.christies.com/features/A-Hawaiian-Kona-figure-of-Ku-ka-ili-moku-8705-3.aspx

** Ken Conklin's note added February 27, 2019: See a followup article, item #3 in the NAGPRA news compilation for 2019 -- doubts are being raised about the authenticity of the wood carving.

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Send comments or questions to:
Ken_Conklin@yahoo.com

LINKS

This present webpage covers only the year 2016.

For coverage of events in 2005 (about 250 pages), see:

https://www.angelfire.com/hi2/hawaiiansovereignty/nagprahawaii2005.html

For year 2006 (about 150 pages), see:
https://www.angelfire.com/hi2/hawaiiansovereignty/nagprahawaii2006.html

For year 2007, another new webpage was created, following the same general format. See:
https://www.angelfire.com/planet/bigfiles40/nagprahawaii2007.html

For year 2008, another new webpage was created, following the same general format. See:
https://www.angelfire.com/planet/big60/nagprahawaii2008.html

For year 2009, another new webpage was created, following the same general format. See:
https://www.angelfire.com/big09a/nagprahawaii2009.html

For year 2010, another new webpage was created, following the same general format. See:
https://www.angelfire.com/big09a/nagprahawaii2010.html

For year 2011, another new webpage was created, following the same general format. See:
https://www.angelfire.com/big09/nagprahawaii2011.html

For year 2012, another new webpage was created, following the same general format. See:
https://www.angelfire.com/big09/nagprahawaii2012.html

For year 2013, another new webpage was created, following the same general format. See:
https://www.angelfire.com/big09/nagprahawaii2013.html

For year 2014, another new webpage was created, following the same general format. See:
https://www.angelfire.com/big09/nagprahawaii2014.html

For year 2015, another new webpage was created, following the same general format. See:
https://www.angelfire.com/big09/nagprahawaii2015.html

For year 2016, another new webpage was created, following the same general format. See:
https://www.angelfire.com/big11a/nagprahawaii2016.html

GO BACK TO: NAGPRA (Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act) as applied to Hawai'i -- Mokapu, Honokahua, Bishop Museum Ka'ai; Providence Museum Spear Rest; Forbes Cave Artifacts; the Hui Malama organization

GO FORWARD TO NAGPRA-RELATED ISSUES IN HAWAII FOR 2018

GO BACK TO OTHER TOPICS ON THIS WEBSITE