Look West: Public lands and energy news from the Center for Western Priorities
** Why it's taken decades to return Native American remains
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Friday, January 13, 2023
The Natural History Museum of Utah via KUER ([link removed])
Following a landmark ProPublica investigation ([link removed]) that found American museums and universities have failed to return thousands of remains of Native Americans, public radio station KUER looked at why one museum in Utah has only made 14 percent of the reported remains in its collection ([link removed]) available for repatriation to tribes.
When the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act passed in 1990, it was estimated that it would take institutions 10 years to return objects and remains to Indigenous nations. But 33 years later, less than half of the remains in the U.S. have been made available to tribes. In Utah, just a quarter of remains are available for burial ([link removed]) . The largest holder of Indigenous remains, the Natural History Museum of Utah, has made just 14 percent of the remains in its collection available for repatriation.
Alexandra Greenwald, the museum's curator of ethnography, acknowledges that anthropologists and archaeologists have to repair ([link removed]) “a damaging legacy of historic and unethical behavior in our field.” The Natural History Museum says many of the remains in its collection are Fremont Indians, a people culturally unaffiliated with Utah's current tribes. An update to NAGPRA now allows repatriation based on geographic affiliation as well as cultural connections.
Betsy Chappoose of the Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation told KUER it's important that all of the people and objects in museum collections are returned.
“Why would it be important if somebody found your grandmother to be returned to your family? It’s no different,” Chapoose said. “These are people. They’re not archeological relics.”
At the current pace, repatriation will take another 70 years to complete across the United States.
Quick hits
** Exxon's climate change models were spot on—40 years ago
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Grist ([link removed])
** Utah coal company claims its coal is so poor it doesn't qualify as coal
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Salt Lake Tribune ([link removed])
** Osage Nation's massive oil estate may get new U.S. protections
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Bloomberg ([link removed])
** Biden's new offshore energy chief becomes target for GOP ire
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E&E News ([link removed])
** Disgraced former Interior secretary backs panel to investigate "weaponization" of government
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E&E News ([link removed])
** U.S. renames 5 places that used racist slur
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Associated Press ([link removed])
** Opinion: BLM needs to prioritize wildlife habitat, migration corridors
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Durango Herald ([link removed])
** Significant dinosaur fossil discovery made in Colorado
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9News ([link removed]) | CBS Colorado ([link removed])
Quote of the day
” It kind of took my breath away when I actually plotted for the first time Exxon’s predictions, and you see them land so tightly around that red curve of reality.”
—University of Miami Professor Geoffrey Supran, Grist ([link removed])
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** @mypubliclands ([link removed])
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Happy Birthday to Arizona's Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument, designated by Presidential Proclamation in 2000. 🎉
Located 30 miles southwest of St. George, Utah, this area features countless biological, historical and archeological treasures. Deep canyons, mountains and lonely buttes testify to the power of geological forces and provide colorful vistas.
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