Think about being denied the flexibility to put your loved ones members to relaxation or to even entry their sacred objects, prized possessions and non secular relics. We wouldn’t want this on anybody, however it’s precisely what is occurring to the Chinook Indian Nation due to the Washington and Oregon congressional delegation’s inaction.
For hundreds of years, the US and its most prestigious educational establishments funded looting expeditions to steal Indigenous remains, grave goods, and sacred objects. Our ancestors had been particularly wanted and even our most powerful chiefs’ graves were not exempt from those efforts. Early anthropologists measured our ancestors’ skulls to prop up their racist theories. Museums of pure historical past displayed our ancestors alongside rocks,fossils and animals, encouraging guests to view us as curiosities.
Our Chinook Indian Nation, the place I function elected chairman, is just not a federally acknowledged tribe right now, largely as a result of we resisted the US’ efforts to take away us from our lands. Throughout treaty negotiations, we refused to depart “the bones of our ancestors,” which allowed us to keep up sovereignty and an unbroken connection to our place and tradition, but in addition led, over time, to a scarcity of clear standing with the federal authorities. We suffered one other setback in 1954 when Congress named three of our 5 tribes within the Western Oregon Termination Act.
We had been lastly federally acknowledged in 2001, solely to have it revoked 18 months later by the incoming Bush administration. We’ve got been preventing to regain our standing ever since as a result of it has real-world penalties, together with denying us the protections assured below the regulation that mandates the return of our stolen ancestors, their grave items and sacred objects.
When the Native American Graves and Repatriation Act was handed in 1990, our neighborhood started receiving inventories of museum collections from throughout the nation. We had been excited to welcome our ancestors residence, and I corresponded with a lot of these museums.
However we shortly realized that NAGPRA protections didn’t prolong to Chinook as a result of we lacked federal recognition. Our ancestors’ bones stayed on museum cabinets, labelled as “culturally unaffiliated,” not as a result of their provenance was unknown however as a result of they had been unaffiliated with a at present acknowledged tribe. Whereas this was not best, we knew that with restoration our ancestors would return residence.
In 2023, the Biden administration updated the regulations governing NAGPRA to require all federally funded universities and museums to arrange all remaining ancestors and objects for repatriation by 2029. That is an admirable and worthy aim, however very similar to the unique regulation, leaves nations like ours with out protections.
Even worse, these new laws arrange a brand new cultural genocide for the Chinook Indian Nation. As I write, inventories of our ancestors, their grave gadgets and vital cultural objects are being re-published with the mandate to return them to any acknowledged tribe that claims “cultural affiliation.” We’ve got now seen communities from tons of of miles away from us make these very claims.
To be clear, Chinook ancestors should come again to Chinook Nation, a territory which has been often reaffirmed by the US authorities. Simply final 12 months, the BIA, Congress, and federal courts reaffirmed us as the sole heirs of our Lower Chinook & Clatsop people and lands– from the place many of those people and gadgets had been stolen. Regardless of our heirship, our continued existence right here, and our clear and acknowledged connections, this injustice will proceed until our standing as a federally acknowledged tribe is restored.
U.S. Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, from Washington; Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, Oregon; and U.S. Reps. Marie Glusenkamp-Perez of Washington and Suzanne Bonamici of Oregon are on discover. Their continued inaction in restoring our recognition is resulting in an irreversible crime on the mouth of the Columbia River. Let each evening that they fall asleep and each morning that they wake with out having acted to cease this nightmare be a rising weight on their spirits.
Our congressional delegation is highly effective. They should champion our Restoration Act to completion.
