The Return of the Ahayu: da: Lessons for Repatriation from Zuni Pueblo and the Smithsonian Institution [and Comments and Replies]

Recent Ethnographic Research on North American Indigenous Peoples

“…Blessing for a Long Time: The Sacred Pole of the Omaha Tribe (Ridington & Hastings 1997) is a prize-winning collaborative ethnography on the repatriation of U'mon'hon'ti (Venerable Man), the Omaha sacred pole, from the Peabody Museum, where he was deposited through the efforts of anthropologist Alice Fletcher and her Omaha collaborator, Francis La Flesche. Similar to an influential article on the repatriation of sacred objects to Zuni Pueblo from the Smithsonian Institution (Merrill et al 1993), Blessing for a Long Time chronicles the changing nature of ethnography and its relationship to indigenous peoples and projects. Reflexive ethnographic writing, derided by some as navel-gazing, has proved to be a useful technique for disciplinary self-examination.…”

Whose Idea Was This?

“…Matilda Coxe Stevenson commissioned the reproduction of religious paraphernalia by Zunis when the originals were not available, and these were subsequently exhibited in the Smithsonian until Zuni religious leaders requested their removal from public view (Merrill, Ladd, and Ferguson 1993). Henry Balfour, curator for the Pitt Rivers Museum from 1891 to 1939, commissioned stone tools from Fred Snare, an Englishman well known for his reproductions used in the study of ancient flint knapping.…”

“…More recently, Zunis have gained recognition for their pioneering approaches to the preNative American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) repatriation of Ahayu:da, or war gods (Merrill, Ladd, and Ferguson 1993), establishing intellectual property rights for indigenous agricultural knowledge (Soleri et al 1994), and the development of a tribal museum (Isaac 2007). Shifts in the directional flow of Zuni knowledge from Western to Zuni institutions raises intriguing questions about the processes involved in Zunis reclaiming "their" knowledge.…”

Le rapatriement du matériel sacré des Pieds-Noirs

“…Il ne suffit pas que les Premières Nations identifient leurs objets sacrés et que ces objets puissent jouer un rôle actif au sein de leurs communautés, celles-ci doivent s'efforcer de rédiger leurs demandes en des termes qui seront acceptés par les bureaucraties des musées (Merrill et al 1993), au risque de rendre ces termes non pertinents pour les Premières Nations. De telles expériences politisent les relations entre les Premières Nations et les musées, ce qui rend la situation inconfortable et difficile pour la majorité des membres du personnel muséal.…”