DH Dev Report 7: UNL and Native Americans—A Brief History of Exploitation and Reparation

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The Hocak Worak Newspaper

            In 1990, the Native American Graves and Reparation Act was passed, requiring “museums, universities, and institution to report American Indian burial remains and artifacts” to the National Park Service so that tribes could reclaim them (“Interest Growing” 1998). This law addressed the material conditions of much anthropological research regarding Native Americans; academic and research institutions often held the remains of indigenous peoples unbeknownst to those peoples’ tribes. Though such remains were kept for scholarly purposes, they perpetuated the history of exploitation of Native Americans. Indigenous remains were regarded as academic commodities, not cultural or ancestral artifacts, and, in the hands of academic institutions, were thus markers of cultural appropriation. The possession of remains by hegemonic institutions privileged the creation and/or advancement of dominant cultural narratives while denying tribes the ability to preserve or restore their own histories.

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln is one those institutions that held remains of Native Americans, guilty of cultural exploitation as well as failing to comply with the Native American Graves and Reparation Act. In 1998, indigenous remains were discovered in a storage unit in Bessey Hall at UNL, and the university’s anthropology department, which is located in Bessey, did not have permission from any tribes for their possession of remains, in clear violation of the 1990 law (“Interest growing” 1998; “University turns over” 2001). The possession of these remains conflicts with many of the tenets described by the SJDHP. As aforementioned, the material conditions of anthropological research were neglected: the deaths of Native Americans enabled research, but tribes were not respected nor compensated for their (unwilling) contributions, and the research that benefited the dominant (i.e. white) culture—which is responsible for centuries of violence and oppression towards native peoples—was only possible because those peoples’ histories, which was not acknowledged; the method of the research did not include collaboration between UNL and the tribes, but it should have; the research only supported one epistemology—that of white culture—and erased the histories/cultures of those it was built on; and the indigenous people, who made the research possible, were denied access to the remains being studied.

Though UNL exploited numerous tribes, some reconciliation did occur, albeit much later than it should have. In 2001, some of the thousands of remains held by UNL were returned, and a private, intertribal burial ceremony was held at the Ponca Cemetery (“University turns over” 2001).

Works Cited

1998. “Interest growing among tribes remains found at University of Nebraska.” Hocak Worak. August 19. http://www.americanindiannewspapers.amdigital.co.uk.libproxy.unl.edu/Documents/Details/SNRC_HCWK_19961220-19981223_ED056 (accessed October 22, 2020).

2001. “University turns over remains” The Indian Trader. December. http://www.americanindiannewspapers.amdigital.co.uk.libproxy.unl.edu/Documents/Details/SNRC_ITDR_2001_ED012 (accessed October 22, 2020).