By Gus Saltonstall
The American Museum of Natural History will close two large halls displaying Native American artifacts to align with new Biden Administration regulations requiring museums to get consent from indigenous tribes before displaying cultural items, The New York Times first reported on Friday.
The famous Upper West Side museum will shutter halls this weekend dedicated to the Eastern Woodlands and the Great Plains, which includes the iconic birchbark canoe of Menominee origin. It means there will be approximately 10,000 square feet of exhibition space no longer available to visitors, with no exact timeline for when the areas will reopen.
“The halls we are closing are artifacts of an era when museums such as ours did not respect the values, perspectives and indeed shared humanity of Indigenous peoples,” Sean Decatur, the museum’s president, wrote in a letter obtained by The New York Times to the museum’s staff on Friday morning. “Actions that may feel sudden to some may seem long overdue to others.”
Decatur added that some objects will never come back on display.
The change in federal regulations leading up to the Friday announcement has been a process 30 years in the works.
In 1990, the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act created protocols for cultural institutions to return human remains and other artifacts to tribes. The law has been criticized by tribal representatives for being too slow, though.
Earlier in January, new federal regulations spearheaded by the Biden Administration went into effect that give cultural institutions a five-year timeline to “prepare all human remains and related funerary objects for repatriation and giving more authority to tribes throughout the process,” according to the New York Times.
Those regulations, which went into effect two weeks ago, also require museums to secure consent from tribes before displaying or performing research on items. The new regulations have left museums throughout the United States working to determine which items they need to cover up, and how to rework displays that contain such artifacts.
“We’re finally being heard — and it’s not a fight, it’s a conversation,” Myra Masiel-Zamora, an archaeologist and curator with the Pechanga Band of Indians, told The Times.
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This is so dumb. I am a lifelong Democrat. This type of policy is an embarrassment to our party (because it is clearly coming from our party).
The damage is done. Many of these items were received through questionable means, but what’s done is done. If the tribes want some of their artifacts back, I am fully supportive of that. Hopefully they would take them back and do something with them, rather than just putting them in a warehouse. But until they make those decisions, let people view and learn about the items. Add plaques giving more context. And don’t accept new items unless they are carefully screened.
But just shutting it down accomplishes nothing. Except making us look bad.
“It is clearly coming from our party – the law was signed in 1990 by GEORGE HERBERT WALKER BUSH. Yes, that Bush.
Somehow, it’s the OTHER party’s fault. And nevermind the rights of the dozens of sovereign tribes involved here.
New York City is part of the United States of America, which Native peoples are an integral part of and are finally receiving a modicum of respect after centuries of theft, expulsion, slaughter and degradation.
Have some perspective, please
I don’t understand your comment. All the Museum is doing is cataloguing what they own and what has been on display, and contacting the specific tribe about it. Then, the tribe will decide whether they have their own location for it, or whether they want to put it in a different museum, or whether they have some scholarly additions to the way in which the items are displayed. Perhaps the tribe rather establish their own museum on their own lands for tourism purposes. It isn’t all about sacred heritage — sometimes it’s about current economic realities, too. But at the end of the day, it gets settled and no one needs to have hard feelings after however-many centuries or decades. Let it all get settled appropriately. There is a Museum of the American Indian (thought they changed the title, but not sure) in lower Manhattan near the Customs House. There is also the Smithsonian, and every other Museum going through this same process and they should. It’s actually a good opportunity for the Museum to go through its holdings. They acquire and acquire and wind up overly stuffed with artifacts rotting and decaying without being properly dealt with. The Museum is probably thankful they are forced to “clean house” and take stock.
“the damage is done” is a harmful sentiment. Would you say the same about artifacts from the Holocaust?
Well I’ll just say that I’ve been to Auschwitz and I think it is important that all those artifacts (hair, shoes) are on display. I think it should be required viewing for pretty much everyone. Yes, the damage is done and people need to remember it.
In case you were unaware, there are several museums in the US and abroad that have substantial artifacts from the Holocaust on display.
Their purpose is so that we never forget. I respectfully believe that
the AMNH collections of indigenous cultural objects has done, and would continue to do, a great service; their display keeps us from forgetting who they were and are, and remind us of how badly they were treated by our own government.
If your main concern is “ looking bad” then you’re right there with the GOP and their efforts to not teach about our less than stellar past because it might make some kids feel bad.
What’s done is not done when we are still perpetuating the desecration of Native remains and objects. It’s high time that these stolen goods were given back to their respective tribes… those that are left.
In my opinion that’s what they should’ve done to the statue outside. Or any other piece that “might” offend.
Agree on many counts. Repatriation is the right approach (cf. Nazi theft & Elgin Marbles).
Repatriation to the USA where they were made?
To the surviving tribes of origin. American Indians are both US citizens and citizens of their respective tribe.
Yes!
Sounds like the process has been long and arduous. Maybe the time has come and they are actually ready to take items back. You can go there and direct them how to safely dismantle (even a portion of) a complex, curated exhibit, prepare them for transport, etc. – all without closing the hall.
This is pretty absurd. Despite the identitarian blah-blah, those exhibits mostly celebrated the culture and lives of the Native Americans, and gave people some incomplete but valid and valuable and generally accurate (as far as it went) perspectives on them. This is narrow-minded “successor ideology” puritanism at its worst.
All this “well intended” interest in the American Indian is little by little removing the Native Peoples from our everyday vision – Soon they will succeed and we will be left with a couple of gambling casinos
A talk by Dorothy Lippert, a member of the Choctaw Nation and the head of the Repatriation Office at the Smithsonian, has always stuck with me, particularly when she explained that archeologists as a matter of habit categorized remains of European origin as “human” and remains of native origin as “specimens”.
Her work and this concept of repatriating remains and artifacts has been happening – and building momentum – for decades. If this is the first you’re hearing of it, maybe think through what it would mean to you if your culture and its history had been dehumanized in this way, for generations. The status of the museum that held your artifacts might not be your priority, particularly over regaining control of your own story and how it is told.
My opinion, not that of the WSR – I think this is ridiculous. Every day it’s something new. Someone else is offended or repressed. So lock it up, through it away. Acknowledge this, but not that. Good Lord. Statues, museum exhibits, parades, holidays . . . erase them all. It is just exhausting. Instead of focusing on making things right moving forward, our pandering government is trying to turn back the hands of time and correct the past. As a Democrat, I agree with Leon. It is embarrassing.
What valuable family items of your multi-generational extended family can I come steal, set up in a museum for public exhibition, curate them via my deep, relevant, “scientific” knowledge of your family, telling your story as I best can, and not consult your family – or least, not much?
Searching this topic brought up a link to AMNH about the pacific northwest peoples’ display done in consultation and collaboration with several tribes. Why is that not respectful?
Completely different hall than the two being closed for re-work.
Maybe they’ll store the artifacts next to Teddy Roosevelt. That would seem appropriate.
I understand the reasoning for this closing and I don’t really have an opinion on it but I respect those who do.
As long as the museum’s bivalves remain on display, I’m happy!
LOL
Have we checked with the relatives of the bivalves to make sure that they are OK with being on display? I’m pretty sure that I do not want a bivalve being angry at me…
So, this is a big joke?
The dinosaurs never gave evil white men permission to disrupt their graves and dig up their bones! Those skeletal remains should be re-buried somewhere.
I expressed my very balanced, reasonable response further up that showed great respect to the tribes. Everyone races to extremes on everything. I think my opinion was very rational, and many others seem to agree.
Can’t you laugh a bit too? Lighten up. Stop taking yourself so seriously. Especially when you have appropriated the name of a comedian, of all people. Have you asked his relatives for permission to use (and abuse) his name?
Wow. I can’t wait for President Trump to come back and save us from this pure insanity!
Biden is enforcing a Republican law, signed by Bush.
Trump brings much more insanity than this.
Save is not the right word. Destroy, pilfer, grift all seem more apropos.
This a long overdue move by AMNH and I applaud Mr. Decatur, the museum’s president, who is quoted in the NYT as wisely saying that “…Museums are at their best when they reflect changing ideas.”
AMNH did not have a choice, unless they did not want to comply with federal law. Mr. Decatur is complying with. the law not making a moral decision.
The question I have for Mr. Decatur is how did you go about securing permission knowing that this law was going to become in effect? Some items that will not come onto display again, meaning they most likely were denied permission already.
I think museums are at their best when they safely preserve history and educate the public. Not when they bend to the whims of public opinion of a given day.
They’re better when they are empty?
Not empty. Just changing exhibits.
Why don’t you just return all the various artifacts you confiscated! Many of the African countries would love to have their things back like mummies that were removed from Egypt etc. etc. etc.
Pathetic. We may as well shut down all museums of items procured before the modern era. Someone, somewhere was mistreated either in the making or the procuring of the art or artifact.
Well it is truly feeling like this is the path moving to. Close exhibits that recognize, reflect, acknowledge, commemorate and/or celebrate our history. Funding for libraries dwindling now with branches not open on Sundays. Statues that reflect a person or moment in time in our history, removed. Let’s erase, ignore and forget our history – the difficult, sad times or the fun, joyous times. Scary.
I’m surprised at the comments. It seems to me quite fair that indigenous peoples should have a say in what is on display. We need to be more repectful and avoid the tendency to make real people invisible.
They were visable and now they will be invisible. Good grief.
Where does it say these exhibits will be permanently closed? They will not be permanently closed. The museum, and museums across the country, are taking time to be respectful to human beings and consulting on which items are not fit for display or storing in museum archives (obviously human remains, and definitely funerary and culturally important artifacts) and instead deserve to be returned so they can be treated with dignity.
The exhibits will be restored like the pacific northwest hall, which is far improved and more vibrant.
Whatever happened to the Native American Museum way uptown on Broadway? Next to the numismatist museum?
I’ve been out of the city a long time.
Meanwhile, WHO is a Biden really helping? The Museum has now closed some rooms and tourists probably will lessen. Perhaps he should now go after the Mteroplitan and all ITS ( Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Etruscan, American ( wait, did I leave anything out? ) collections.
I guess TEDDY ROOSEVELT wasn’t a perfect fit in Biden’s world. Or maybe it isn’t HIS world after all? I doubt he’s the one making these decisions,
Moved from Audubon Terrace to The U.S. Custom House. Audubon Terrace still has The Hispanic Society and Academy of Arts and Letters.
The only thing this will achieve is to deny people— children, mostly— an opportunity to learn about these cultures and people and make them even more invisible than they already are. If the act requires museums to get tribal consent to display such items, and the AMNH’s own president feels the new regulations are ‘long overdue,’ why hasn’t he used the time to secure consent from the tribes concerned, rather than just wait to be told to lock it all away out of sight? This does not speak well of the stewardship of the AMNH. A museum is meant to be a guardian of culture, not a vault hiding it from sight.
Not sure how this denies anyone from learning about these cultures.
You’re joking right? If the millions of AMNH visitors don’t see an exhibit of the Eastern Woodlands people, the odds of them ever hearing about them and being curious about them is about zero percent.
I think getting tribal consent is a good idea where possible, especially for remains and funerary items, but who consents to a 10,000 year-old arrowhead? There may be some gray areas. Also, I hope consent will be freely given because places like the AMNH are the only (or the best) exposure to such cultures that some folks ever receive.
Go to the PNW hall – you’ll get an idea what the renovations and collaborations will mean. It is spectacular
It feels odd but I guess if the rightful owners, the tribes, want the artifacts to be displayed and approve that, it will happen. They belong to them after all.
This is so ridiculous. Are we going to have to ask the ancient Egyptians and ancient Romans next.
Actually, Italy and Egypt have both had a lot of success repatriating items back to their country that were removed (stolen) without permission. So yes, you are correct.
The TR statue offended people….the Native American exhibit offended people….i can promise you if you look into the history of ANY art in any museum you can find a reason to be offended. As someone who has actually visited some of the great museums around the world, I can only hope this woke insanity doesn’t work its way abroad. Please leave the false outrage and pandering to us absurd US liberals….
Everyone who is upset about this decision- think for a moment, why are Native American artifacts on display at a “natural history” museum in the first place? Why are items from the global south, African art, indigenous peoples objects all on display at the AMNH vs an art museum? There’s no gallery dedicated to “Northern Europeans” that contains items taken from burial sites and churches. These collections had racist ideas at their founding where they were being contrasted to European artifacts. Keep the AMNH focused on the natural world and sciences.
Anthropology is considered part of natural history. Margaret Mead was a long-time curator at AMNH.
THIS. We go to the Met to see the reliquaries and crosses of the Christian past, to see Buddhist statues and European armor, tableware and furniture. They are NOT presented on mannequins in dioramas alongside stuffed mammoths and sloths.
Even as a kid I was confused why the natural history museum–a museum of which I am a member and enjoy greatly–holds anthropological and cultural objects. I find it odd that gallery of wildlife leads into one with Indians, a relic of an earlier association. Seems reasonable to repatriate those objects and make room for more nature.
I am fascinated by the direction of many of these comments — that the most relevant aspect of this situation is ourselves and what we happen to like and want (as non-Native people). Plain and simple, many cultural objects in many museums do not now and never belonged to the outsiders who saw them, seized them, took them home, and put them in their museums or personal collections. The fact that we have all become accustomed to such behavior does not make it appropriate for perpetual continuance — history is full of activities that would offend anyone today but which was commonplace at one time. Reversing it is a leaderful moral action; it is true that amends will not be possible in every instance, but when they can be made, they should. Bravo, AMNH.
Bunch of white people patting themselves on the backs thinking they’re doing the “right” thing when in actuality they are offending everyone. This madness has to stop.
In 1906, a Congo Pygmy named Ota Benga was housed temporarily at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City—and then exhibited, briefly and controversially, at the Bronx Zoo.
We evolve as a civilization. Hardly madness.
I’m reading some of these comments and glad to know Manhattan isn’t the crazy wokeism nut farm gone amuck it seemed to be. There are still common sense democrats (and maybe even liberals) alive and well. Maybe we should just bulldoze the museum and add a 300th homeless shelter to the UWS?
Do you understand that this is a nationwide initiative?
OMG
People are so hung up on genetics!
I’ve got news for you— you are your own unique person on Earth in 2024–
You are not the composite of your 23 and me results any more than I am. Embrace the present, LEARN all you can about EVERYONE’S heritage, but get over the material “stuff.”
They should bring back the Teddy statue and discuss WHY things ARE different today—
You can’t erase nor “whitewash “ history—
Embrace it and don’t repeat it.
Be kind.
Stop war.
The rest is fluff.
I won’t miss it. I’ll say it aloud–I found it boring and so did my kids. I wonder how popular it was with visitors in general? It could be a good excuse for the Museum to drop it and find more exciting exhibits for the space –and have a “noble” excuse for doing so. .
I hated the removal of the Roosevelt statue, not because it wasn’t problematic but because wokeness attacks without understanding and tries to replace the complexity of history with cartoonishly simplistic condemnation. The museum and its visitors deserve better.
That said, except for the totem poles, I never found the Native exhibit that compelling. If the museum replaces it with a more nuanced, informative, and dynamic exhibit, in consultation with the Native tribes concerned, it could be outstanding. I liked what curator Masiel-Zamora said about “a conversation.”
And while they’re doing that, could the museum please renovate the adjacent John Burroughs exhibit? I’m grateful they haven’t torn down the existing one, but they could do so much more with it. He was a fascinating naturalist writer and conservationist.
It leaves me scratching my head. I’ve seen those displays and I see nothing disrespectful about them. They are beautiful. It the idea that indigenous people or native AmericanTribes would rather that no one know anything about them at all. Why not ad d explanatory language rather than close the displays. It’s maddening!
Agree! The Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford (https://www.prm.ox.ac.uk/critical-changes ) has done exactly that, and they had a much bigger and more embarrassing task at hand but recognised that a fuller sense of context and understanding of their fabulous collection, rather than naked curiosity or shame, was needed. And certainly no thought to just shutting down the whole shebang was seriously considered. Instead, “ For reopening, we have installed new interpretation on site offering visitors insight into the way the Museum formed its collections. Displays explain how some of the historic labels have obscured the deeper understanding of other cultures and therefore offer a very limited insight into complex historical processes and can reinforce racism and stereotypes. New labels and corresponding films and podcasts offer new readings, bringing to life the displays with more engaging, moving and multi-faceted stories that help visitors engage more deeply with stories through the voices of artists, Indigenous leaders and local stakeholders…”. In short, more informative, more sensitive. This is how it can be done (takes time! takes thought and consultation, not just knee-jerk response!): https://www.prm.ox.ac.uk/critical-changes.
I applaud this decision. Natural History is the study of plants and animals and other things found in nature. Including American Indians in a Natural History museum is a dehumanizing act. There are no exhibits about the Pilgrims or Irishmen or the Dutch in the AMNH. There are exhibits of Rocks, Plants, Dinosaurs, Elephants and Indians. Shame on all of us for allowing this to last as long as it did.
Now do the same for the dinosaur bones.
I am saddened by some of the lack of understanding and compassion shown by some commenters here. We are talking about human remains, funerary objects (in the category of gravestones, caskets, mausoleum artwork, etc.), and important spiritual objects. It is not the place of those who took those items to unilaterally determine what should be returned and what can be kept in these collections. It is vital, and long overdue, to consult with the affected tribes so that these institutions can truly become great halls of learning for all, rather than holders of grave-robbed human remains and culturally significant objects that have been treated with disrespect for centuries.
Look very closely at the spectacular Northwest Coast Hall to see the improvements that can be made through close work with Native American tribes.
Would make lot more sense to leave exhibition intact while they contact individual tribes. Replace or attribute ownership as needed on a continuous basis.
Until the museum obtains consent, it has to presume it lacks consent and should not continue displaying them in the meantime.
I mean, would you think it’s okay for a stranger to start kissing you and keep kissing you as long as you haven’t said no yet?
The museums around the world are full of artifacts from burial grounds of various people, some of them are civilizations that disappeared. That’s how we learn about different cultures. Until now, it was not insulting to anyone. Will the Egyptian tombs be next to be removed from the Mets in order not to insult ancient Egyptians? There are other tombs there as well representing beautiful art and sculpture of cultures long gone. Our younger generation is already ignorant to the alarming degree. Let’s purge our museums of all history, otherwise, somebody, god forbid, may get offended.
The artifacts (including human remains, funerary objects, and important spiritual relics) include many which belong to peoples who live today. Those are the tribes being consulted. That is the respectful and human thing to do.
As the NYT article mentions, this action is because of a law that Congress passed in 1990 *(over 33 years ago !) . It was signed by President George W Bush in Nov 1990. *The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act.
There have been numerous Congressional hearings into What is Taking So Long ( I paraphrase)
The Biden Administration, to its credit said ‘enough already’.
This is certainly not ‘wokeism’ . Unless you call 1990’s Congress and President ‘woke’. It’s simple justice and decency;
I work at AMNH and I am so glad that they are closing the halls of eastern woodlands and Great Plains. They were both created in the 1960s and the way the displays were organized gave visitors the sense that indigenous people are a primitive, homogenous group of people who are a thing of the past.
I would encourage everyone to visit the new Northwest Coast Hall. Some main differences you’ll see is that it emphasizes the fact that indigenous people are alive and thriving today and it celebrates the many distinct cultural groups who are living in the region, each with its distinct language and practices. It also explains why the objects on display are considered treasures by the people. Treasures like those were often given names and considered part of the family, and they embody and tell important stories that are passed down from generation to generation.
I think the Northwest Coast hall is a great example of the museum respecting indigenous people and helping them tell their own stories to the rest of the world. And I hope the museum will get some major funding and donations to redo the closed halls in a similar way.
thank you SG!!
I do not understand why we are erasing our history (just like the Soviet Union did).
Wait, are there not also exhibits of cultures other than Native peoples who resided or reside in what’s currently known as the USA? I seem to remember there being quite a significant collection of South American native pieces as well. African too, no? Why are those not being treated similarly? If we try hard enough, we might just get this right before the world goes poof!!!
Where will these artifacts go? Have the new places “museum quality” facilities to protect the artifacts ?
As much as the UWS claims to be a tolerant neighborhood, they aren’t truly accepting of those who UWSers feel are beneath them. Seeing how Muslims on the UWS are treated makes me think that maybe Sara Lind’s campaign folks had a point about how the UWS isn’t exactly welcoming.
Big Ben, the UWS is, in general, more welcoming of diversity than some of the commenters in WestSideRag, who often “tilt to the right”, Though if you tally the above comments, you’ll see that the grumps are a minority.