{"id":6218,"date":"2021-11-23T09:47:52","date_gmt":"2021-11-23T15:47:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/?p=6218"},"modified":"2021-11-23T09:47:52","modified_gmt":"2021-11-23T15:47:52","slug":"a-decolonial-examination-of-the-smithsonian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/2021\/11\/23\/a-decolonial-examination-of-the-smithsonian\/","title":{"rendered":"A Decolonial Examination of the Smithsonian"},"content":{"rendered":"

When the indigenous song collection group began our research, we found that the Smithsonian funded much of Densmore\u2019s work. As I so clearly and forcefully lined out in my last blog post, I personally believe that Densmore\u2019s work, funded by the Smithsonian, was a form of cultural colonialism. Much of my research here was inspired by the article \u201cDecolonizing Ethnographic Documentation: A Critical History of the Early Museum Catalogs at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History\u201d by Hannah Turner.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Within her conclusion, she states:<\/span><\/p>\n

Museums have become contentious and even harmful places for Indigenous peoples, and these communities have actively sought to retrieve and reconnect with lost objects and lost knowledge. A decolonial approach calls into question the seemingly stable and unchangeable museum categories and knowledge organization. 1<\/sup><\/a>
\n<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So, how is the Smithsonian, specifically the National Museum of the American Indian, attempting to write these wrongs? The National Museum of the American Indian holds the \u201cone of the most extensive collections of Native American arts and artifacts in the world\u2014approximately 266,000 catalog records (825,000 items) representing over 12,000 years of history and more than 1,200 indigenous cultures throughout the Americas.\u201d 2<\/sup><\/a> George Gustav Heye funded the majority of the current collection by simply buying Native American artifacts. I was fascinated by the framing of Heye on the official website; they take such care in framing much of their work, yet they do not acknowledge any harm done by Heye as a \u201ccollector.\u201d However, the website has significant information concerning repatriation.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Repatriation activities at the Smithsonian Institution are governed by the National Museum of the American Indian Act (NMAIA), 20 U.S.C. \u00a780q (Public Law 101\u2013185), as amended by the NMAI Act Amendment of 1996 (Public Law 104\u2013278). The NMAIA requires the Smithsonian to repatriate Native American human remains, funerary objects, sacred objects, and objects of cultural patrimony from the collections to federally recognized tribes in the United States that are culturally affiliated with the items upon request. Two of the Smithsonian’s museums, the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) and the National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) conduct repatriation activities for their respective collections in accordance with their own policies and procedures.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

At the NMAI, the following are categories eligible for repatriation:<\/span><\/p>\n

Human Remains<\/span><\/p>\n

Funerary Objects (Associated and Unassociated Funerary Objects)<\/span><\/p>\n

Sacred Objects<\/span><\/p>\n

Objects of Cultural Patrimony<\/span><\/p>\n

Illegally Acquired Items <\/span>3<\/sup><\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In our final project, we hope to outline repatriation as a concept on our website, and this information provides a strong outline of what is feasibly possible, and actually happening within the realm of repatriation of Native American artifacts and what we might actually begin to do with Densmore\u2019s recordings.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

1<\/a> Turner.<\/p>\n

\n
\n

2<\/a>“Repatriation.”<\/p>\n

\n

3<\/a> “History of the Collections”.<\/p>\n

\u201cA Step-by-Step Guide through the Repatriation Process.\u201d <\/span>National Museum of the American Indian. <\/span><\/i>https:\/\/americanindian.si.edu\/sites\/1\/files\/pdf\/repatriation\/NMAI-Repatriation-Guidelines-2020.pdf<\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHistory of the Collections.\u201d <\/span>National Museum of the American Indian. <\/span><\/i>https:\/\/americanindian.si.edu\/explore\/collections\/history<\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cRepatriation.\u201d <\/span>National Museum of the American Indian. <\/span><\/i>https:\/\/americanindian.si.edu\/explore\/repatriation<\/span><\/i><\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Turner, Hannah. \u201cDecolonizing Ethnographic Documentation: A Critical History of the Early Museum Catalogs at the Smithsonian\u2019s National Museum of Natural History.\u201d <\/span>Cataloging & Classification Quarterly<\/span><\/i> 53, no. 5-6 (2015): 658\u2013676.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When the indigenous song collection group began our research, we found that the Smithsonian funded much of Densmore\u2019s work. As I so clearly and forcefully lined out in my last blog post, I personally believe that Densmore\u2019s work, funded by … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3549,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7jEhR-1Ci","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3549"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6218"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6218\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6221,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6218\/revisions\/6221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}