Northfield History Center repatriates items to Prairie Island

 Cannon Falls, MINNESOTA, written by Lisa Kaczke

• Published on Dec 2, 2024

The Northfield History Center has repatriated a number of items from its collection to the Prairie Island Indian Community. 

The Northfield History Center voluntarily invited the Prairie Island Tribal Historic Preservation Office (THPO) to review its collection and then took steps for the THPO to take immediate possession of the items. In a process that has been historically fraught with difficulties for tribes, the willingness of the Northfield History Center made it a positive experience and cemented a foundation for future collaborations between the two entities.

“Oftentimes, it’s a struggle to get some of these objects returned so whenever we have a volunteer and cooperating partner, it makes the process so much easier and in this instance, we found a true partnership that we are building upon with our friends over at Northfield History Center,” said Franky Jackson, Prairie Island’s tribal historic compliance officer.

The Northfield History Center announced Nov. 18 that its Board of Directors approved the deaccessioning of the items. The items are sacred Native American items that have significance to local Indigenous people, according to the announcement.

“These items have been in the Northfield History Center collection for many years, but they do not belong to the Northfield community. They belong to the people that lived in this area long before us, and that made and used these items,” Executive Director Sean Allen said in a statement. “Today we are proud to be able to repatriate these important pieces to their rightful owners and to build a lasting partnership with the Prairie Island Indian Community.”

 

New federal rules

It’s important to tribes to identify which institutions have their items and which people within the tribe can benefit from having the items returned, Jackson said. 

“When it comes to our sacred items, this is part of how we heal our hoop. This is part of how we heal our communities, is by capturing and bringing home these sacred items that help us with our ceremonies,” Jackson said.

Repatriation is also related to the tribe’s cultural revitalization. It’s “crucially important” for Prairie Island’s artists to have access to the items to have a connection to their relatives’ handiwork, carry forward the artistry and pass it down to next generations, Jackson said.

“That’s a big part of what we’re doing with our Tribal Historic Preservation Office here. As we accession in items, it’s our goal to allow our community-based artists to have access to those items,” Jackson said.

The process for institutions to repatriate items to tribes is regulated by the federal Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) of 1990,which requires institutions that receive federal funding to transfer Native American human remains and objects of cultural patrimony to lineal descendants and culturally affiliated tribes. Despite the law, thousands of Native American human remains and artifacts remained in museums. 

A revision of NAGPRA went into effect in January that streamlines the repatriation process, gives tribes the power to define what is a sacred object and gives tribes more jurisdiction over the institutions’ use of human remains and objects. It also requires institutions to inventory all of their Native American artifacts within the next five years. 

Under the revised law, an institution has 90 days to respond once a claim has been filed. Prior to the change in January, "institutions could drag their feet and take as long as they wanted. In some instances, it has taken us literally years to reconcile some items,” Jackson said. 

An example of that is the noose that was known as the Mankato Hanging Rope in the Minnesota Historical Society’s collection.  The noose was used in the hanging of Wicanhpi Wastedanpi (Good Little Stars) on Dec. 26, 1862 in Mankato as part of the largest mass execution in U.S. history.  The Minnesota Historical Society returned the noose earlier this year after Prairie Island submitted a claim under the new NAGPRA rules.  The repatriation of the noose this year came after Dakota tribes’ “11-year struggle” to have it returned, Jackson said.

“With some of the new legislation that took place with the law, that strengthens the tribal voice when it comes to certain things and it allows us to have this done in a way that’s timely for us,” Jackson said.

Often, Prairie Island learns of an object belonging to the tribe when a museum contacts the THPO or the object is put up for auction to the highest bidder. Both can be a “tumulteous” process for the tribe, Jackson said. 

Museums who received the federal funding appropriated by Congress during the Covid-19 pandemic are now required to inventory their collections under the revised law. The Prairie Island THPO is seeing an influx of inquiries from institutions across the United States to review items in their collections that they believe belong to Prairie Island. Noah White, Prairie Island’s tribal historic preservation officer, estimates they’ve heard from 30-35 institutions since the beginning of the year. 

“Nobody ever really reached out to us in the past. We’d always find out from a different source,” White said.

After Prairie Island’s struggles to reclaim items, they had “jubilation and excitement” when the Northfield History Center reached out and the THPO was able to easily bring the items home, Jackson said. 

“They looked within their collection, identified some items that they knew were going to be controversial, some that may have fallen under the federal definition of that law, and they were proactive,” Jackson said.

The process with the Northfield History Center moved quickly.

“They rolled the doors open. They greeted us, they were very welcoming,” Jackson said.

After Allen and the Board of Directors reached out, the Prairie Island THPO visited the Northfield History Center to inventory its collection and identified several items that met the definition as a sacred object or object of cultural patrimony under NAGPRA, Jackson said.

Prairie Island had to formally file a NAGPRA claim on the items, but on the THPO’s second visit, the Northfield History Center established a temporary loan agreement to allow the THPO to take possession of the objects immediately. 

“That is very rare. That doesn’t happen often,” Jackson said.

When a tribe reviews a museum’s collection and identifies items it wants returned, it can create a lot of “anxiety” and “angst” for the tribe, Jackson said.

“To have this institution introduce a loan agreement as part of the solution just demonstrated beyond measures that they had more than a passing interest to return these objects to the appropriate people,” Jackson said. “That really demonstrated that we have a trusted partner at the table that wanted to do the morally right thing.” 

 

Repatriated items

Most of the items that were returned by the Northfield History Center will be held by the tribe as objects of cultural patrimony, meaning that they belong to the broader tribe, Jackson said. 

The items included two large ceremonial headdresses made of eagle feathers, handmade beads and other materials, according to the Northfield History Center. The headdresses are “exquisite,” Jackson said. The repatriation helps bring those items back into the Prairie Island community so they can view them and learn the story of the repatriation, he said.

Some of the objects are considered sacred and won’t have public access, he said.

There were several “wonderful and beautiful” sacred pipes in the collection, Jackson said. The provenance on some of the pipes was detailed and the THPO was able to identify the families to whom the pipes need to be returned.

“That’s a wonderful, wonderful experience for us to be able to work with this institution to be able to find that pathway home for some of these objects,” Jackson said.

Prairie Island is also working with several other museums in Minnesota on voluntary repatriation and to create repatriation policies. The cross-cultural exchange and collaboration with the Northfield History Center shows what’s possible. Prairie Island plans to collaborate with the history center on its exhibits and history center staff plans to visit Prairie Island to see their collection and buffalo herd, Jackson said. 

“The partnership with Northfield is going to go much deeper,” he said.