Manataka American Indian Council®
Cranbrook to give bones to Odawa Indian tribe
Museum
wants to do 'right thing' with old remains
Associated
Press
BLOOMFIELD HILLS - It's a matter of "doing the right thing," according to
the director of the Cranbrook Institute of Science, which plans to turn over the
remains of about 60 Native Americans to the Little Traverse Bay Band of Odawa
Indians.
The bones have spent decades in the back rooms of the museum, part of its
vast collection of artifacts from cultures around the world. They belong to
people who hunted and fished in what is now Oakland County hundreds of years
before the first Europeans arrived.
This fall, Cranbrook expects to surrender the remains after publication of a
notice in the Federal Register to alert other tribes that might want to claim
the bones.
"This is a very emotionally and in some respects a politically charged issue,"
institute director Mike Stafford told the Detroit Free Press. "We feel we're
doing the right thing. And I hope it inspires other institutions to do the
same."
Cranbrook's collection of Native American remains is the largest in the state to
begin the repatriation process, said Eric Hemenway, a researcher for the Little
Traverse Bay Band of Odawa Indians. The tribe last year asked Cranbrook for the
bones.
U.S. law requires federally funded institutions such as Cranbrook to
return Native American bones that are found with artifacts affiliating them with
a tribe, if the tribe requests it.
The law doesn't require return of bones that aren't affiliated with a specific
tribe.
According to Hemenway, Michigan museums hold unaffiliated remains belonging to
about 1,700 to 2,000 Native Americans. He said many museums have rebuffed
repatriation attempts to keep the bones for research purposes. He praised
Cranbrook's willingness to return the bones.