battlefields and burial grounds

BATTLEFIELD'S AND BURIAL GROUNDS

Thinking, today, about three items: Museums, American Indians, and the

Native American Graves and Repatriation Act.

On Friday I was in Chicago giving a workshop for teachers. It took

place at Chicago's Field Museum. During my presentation, I showed

slides of the ways that American Indians are portrayed in children's

books. Among the slides is one from Sid Hoff's Danny and the Dinosaur.

Published in 1958 it is a perennial favorite and part of HarperCollins

I Can Read series. In the story, Danny goes to a museum. Inside he

sees "An Indian, a bear, and an Eskimo" in one of the exhibits. I

showed a slide of that page in my presentation. There is much to say

about why American Indians are placed alongside animals, but the point

I wish to make today is about American Indian artifacts and remains

that are held by museums across the country.

In 1990, Congress passed the Native American Graves and Repatriation

Act (NAGPRA). From the NAGPRA website:

NAGPRA provides a process for museums and Federal agencies to

return certain Native American cultural items -- human remains,

funerary objects, sacred objects, or objects of cultural patrimony

-- to lineal descendants, and culturally affiliated Indian tribes

and Native Hawaiian organizations. NAGPRA includes provisions for

unclaimed and culturally unidentifiable Native American cultural

items, intentional and inadvertent discovery of Native American

cultural items on Federal and tribal lands, and penalties for

noncompliance and illegal trafficking.

In 1994, Lerner published a terrific book for children about the work

of American Indians whose work led to NAGPRA. The book is called

Battlefields and Burial Grounds: The Indian Struggle to Protect

Ancestral Graves in the United States, by Roger C. Echo-Hawk and

Walter R. Echo-Hawk. Unfortunately, it is out of print. Both men are

Pawnee. This is an important book. Each year, hundreds of teachers

take their students on field trips to museums. As you plan this year's

trip, will you visit a museum that has American Indian exhibits? If

so, spend time with Battlefields and Burial Grounds before you go. It

will be time well spent.