NOVEMBER 7, 2022:
BARRE, Mass. (AP) — A two hour ceremony was held in Massachusetts on Saturday (Nov. 5, 2022) to mark the symbolic return of about 150 items considered sacred by the Sioux peoples that had been stored at a small Massachusetts museum for more than a century. The ceremony included representatives of the Oglala Sioux and Cheyenne River Sioux Tribes. The artifacts will be officially handed over during a private ceremony. The items include weapons, pipes, moccasins and clothing. Several of the items are thought to have a direct link to the 1890 Wounded Knee Massacre in South Dakota. The items had been held by the Founders Museum in Barre, Massachusetts.
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BARRE, Mass. (AP) — About 150 artifacts considered sacred by the Lakota Sioux peoples are being returned to them after being stored at a small Massachusetts museum for more than a century.
Members of the Oglala Sioux and Cheyenne River Sioux Tribes traveled from South Dakota to take custody of the weapons, pipes, moccasins and clothing, including several items thought to have a direct link to the 1890 Wounded Knee Massacre in South Dakota.
They had been held by the Founders Museum in Barre, Massachusetts, about 74 miles west of Boston. A public ceremony was held Saturday (Nov. 5, 2022) inside the gym at a nearby elementary school that included prayers by the Lakota representatives. The artifacts will be officially handed over during a private ceremony.
“Ever since that Wounded Knee massacre happened, genocides have been instilled in our blood,” said Surrounded Bear, 20, who traveled to Barre from the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, according to The Boston Globe. “And for us to bring back these artifacts, that’s a step towards healing. That’s a step in the right direction.”
The ceremony marked the culmination of repatriation efforts that had been decades in the making.
“It was always important to me to give them back,” said Ann Meilus, president of the board at the Founders Museum. “I think the museum will be remembered for being on the right side of history for returning these items.”
The items being returned are just a tiny fraction of an estimated 870,000 Native American artifacts — including nearly 110,000 human remains — in the possession of the nation’s most prestigious colleges, museums and even the federal government. They’re supposed to be returned to the tribes under the 1990 Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act.
Museum officials have said that as a private institution that does not receive federal funding, the institution is not subject to NAGPRA, but returning items in its collection that belong to Indigenous tribes is the right thing to do.
More than 200 men, women, children and elderly people were killed in the 1890 Wounded Knee Massacre on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Congress issued a formal apology to the Sioux Nation a century later for one of the nation’s worst massacres of Native Americans.
The Barre museum acquired its Indigenous collection from Frank Root, a traveling shoe salesman who collected the items on his journeys during the 19th century, and once had a road show that rivaled P.T. Barnum’s extravaganzas, according to museum officials.
Wendell Yellow Bull, a descendant of Wounded Knee victim Joseph Horn Cloud, has said the items will be stored at Oglala Lakota College until tribal leaders decide what to do with them.
The items being returned to the Sioux people have all been authenticated by multiple experts, including tribal experts. The museum also has other Indigenous items not believed to have originated with the Sioux.
OCTOBER 11, 2022:
UNDATED (AP)- About 150 items considered sacred by the Sioux peoples that have been stored at a small Massachusetts museum for more than a century are being returned. Museum and tribal officials announced Monday (Oct. 10, 2022) that the items including weapons, pipes, moccasins and clothing — some of which are thought to be linked to the the 1890 Wounded Knee Massacre — are due to be formally handed over during a ceremony Nov. 5. The items have been stored at the Founders Museum in Barre for more than a century. Kevin Killer, president of the Oglala Sioux tribe, said the return of the items is a chance to begin the process of healing.
FILE – Leola One Feather, right, of the Oglala Sioux Tribe in South Dakota, lines up a grouping as John Willis photographs, left, Native American artifacts on July 19, 2022, at the Founders Museum in Barre, Massachusetts. Overseers of a Massachusetts museum and leaders of the Oglala Sioux Tribe are making a joint announcement Monday, Oct. 10, 2022, about the return of sacred Native American objects believed to have been taken
from ancestors massacred at Wounded Knee Creek in 1890. (AP Photo/Philip Marcelo, File)
Extended version:
UNDATED (AP)- About 150 items considered sacred by the Sioux peoples that have been stored at a small Massachusetts museum for more than a century are being returned, museum and tribal officials announced Monday (Oct. 10, 2022).
The items including weapons, pipes, moccasins and clothing — about seven or eight of which are thought to have a direct link to the the 1890 Wounded Knee Massacre — are due to be formally handed over during a ceremony scheduled for Nov. 5, Ann Meilus, president of the board at the Founders Museum in Barre, said during a news conference on a day that several people present noted is more commonly being celebrated as Indigenous Peoples Day.
“This is not our history of Barre. This is the Lakota Sioux’s history, and we should honor the Lakota Sioux and what they desire,” she said.
It is a repatriation project that has been decades in the making.
The return of the items is a chance to “begin that process of healing,” Kevin Killer, president of the Oglala Sioux tribe said.
The items being returned are just a tiny fraction of an estimated 870,000 Native American artifacts — including nearly 110,000 human remains — in the possession of the nation’s most prestigious colleges, museums and even the federal government that under federal law are supposed to be returned to the tribes under the 1990 Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, often referred to as or NAGPRA.
While the Barre museum maintains that as a private institution that does not receive federal funding, it is not subject to NAGPRA, returning items in its collection that belong to Indigenous tribes is the right thing to do, Meilus said.
Wendell Yellow Bull, a descendant of Wounded Knee victim Joseph Horn Cloud, said the items will be stored at Oglala Lakota College until tribal leaders decide what to do with them.
“Upon the return of the items, there will be a mass meeting and a very meticulous discussion on how and what we’re going to do with the items,” he said. “Most of all, there are items from the massacre site, so a lot of preparations and ceremonies must take place in order for us to proceed forward.”
More than 200 men, women, children and elderly people were killed on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in December 1890 in one of the country’s worst massacres of Native Americans. Congress issued a formal apology to the Sioux Nation for the massacre in 1991.
The Barre museum acquired its Indigenous collection from Frank Root, a 19th century native of the town about 70 miles (112 kilometers) west of Boston. He was a traveling shoe salesman who collected the items on his journeys, and once had a road show that rivaled P.T. Barnum’s extravaganzas, Meilus said.
The items being returned to the Sioux people have all been authenticated by multiple experts, including tribal experts. The museum has other Indigenous items not believed to have originated with the Sioux.
Artist Michael He Crow used his expertise of traditional Lakota Sioux artwork and craftsmanship.
“I am able to recognize some of the designs and the colors that the Lakota used at that time,” he said.
There was a time when specific designs could be traced back to a particular family, but because those designs have been reproduced and replicated so many times over the years, that is now nearly impossible, he said.
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