wfn.org | Native-American remains find final home in Alaskan village

[ENS.parti@ecunet.org (ENS)]

For more information contact:
Episcopal News Service
Kathryn McCormick
kmccormick@dfms.org
212/922-5383
http://www.ecusa.anglican.org/ens

99-177

Native-American remains find final home in Alaskan village

by Donna Miller MacAlpine

     After many months of negotiations between the Anvik Tribal Council 
and the American Museum of Natural History in New York, some human 
remains and their associated funerary objects were returned to Anvik, their 
Alaskan village of origin, last July. Chief Carl Jerue, Jr., and Tribal Council 
member Ronald Kruger, Sr., travelled to New York to witness the packing 
of the remains and to accompany them home.  The reburial and potlatch 
took place July 28.
     The remains were the skulls of three adult males, three females and a 
child that had been removed in 1903 during an expansion of the Episcopal 
Mission, which was established in Anvik in 1887.  Their return was prompted 
by the Native American Graves and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), which 
requires all museums in the United States to report to Native American tribes 
their inventories of all human remains and associated items and to eventually
return them to their places of origin. 
     The remains returned to Anvik also included objects buried with the 
various persons, including clay lamps, knives, bracelets, wooden boxes, 
awls and scrapers, a comb and two bear tooth pendants.
     While this not the first time that bones had been repatriated in Alaska 
under the 1990 federal act, it was the first time for an Athabaskan village. 
The office of the Diocese of Alaska confirmed that it was the first time that 
the Episcopal Church had been involved.
Preparations for a funeral  
     The people of Anvik prepared for the reburial as they would have for a
 funeral. The men built a large coffin with seven compartments, which the 
women lined with bright cotton prints.  Tribal workers dug the grave and 
built a "fence" to cover the grave.
     Many items such as gloves, hatchets, towels and yarn were purchased to 
distribute at the potlatch, a ceremonial feast at which special foods are served 
and gifts presented by the family to the guests. A number of women prepared 
for the potlatch/give-away by making beaded items and other things.  Since 
there was no information about the families of the deceased in this case, the 
Anvik Tribal Council sponsored the potlatch. In addition, a few days before 
the reburial a hunting party went out and got a moose under a special permit.

     On Tuesday afternoon, the remains of the ancestors were brought to the
City Building and placed in the coffin in the presence of the elders.  All others 
were asked to leave the hall at this time.  The Rev. Trimble Gilbert of Arctic 
Village said prayers in Gwich'in.  The coffin remained overnight in the hall.  
Guests who had already arrived were fed at the building, and later in the e
vening everyone was welcomed by Jerue, who gave a brief history of what 
led up to this occasion and a description of the trip to New York. 
Representatives of other villages also spoke. The Anvik Dancers then 
danced in front of the coffin to honor the remains.

     Wednesday was a very busy day, as many more guests were arriving by
plane and boat. Anvik households were occupied with last-minute details and 
with cooking for the potlatch. With the arrival of Bishop Mark MacDonald of 
Alaska; Steve Ginnis, Tanana Chiefs president, and others from Anchorage,
final preparations were made for the service. Soon after their arrival the artifacts
from the graves, which had been displayed at the local museum, were brought
to the City Building and placed in a tray inside the top of the coffin.

Request for forgiveness

     When this was finished everyone gathered again inside the City Building
and the bishop started the service by kneeling before the coffin and declaring 
repentance for the evil that had been done in the removal of the remains from 
the graves by a member of the church.  This act of penitence and request  for 
forgiveness was then followed by prayers and an explanation of what was to 
follow.

     The coffin was then taken by truck to the front of the church, where the 
service continued.  The coffin was not taken inside; everyone stood around 
it seemingly unmindful of the mosquitoes and a light rain. It was somewhere
in this area that the old graves were originally located.

     From there the coffin was carried up the old trail from the church to the 
cemetery.  The grave had been prepared on the point of a ridge a short distance
below a cluster of old graves and everyone gathered there for the interment, 
which included prayers and singing. Crackers, dry fish and pop were 
distributed, as is customary at a funeral.

     The potlatch was held at the City Building and started with the distribution 
of gifts and of special foods such as vinggiq--Indian ice cream--of several 
varieties, plus cookies and candy.  Some remarks were  made by Chief Jerue, 
who then introduced Laura Chapman Rico, granddaughter of the Rev. John 
Chapman, Anvik's first priest, who had removed the remains and sent them to 
New York.

     Chapman had a reputation as a scholar with particular interests in linguistics, 
anthropology and culture. He learned the local language, collected folk tales,
and wrote about the Anvik people in articles published in several anthropological
 journals. He also encouraged explorers and scientists who were traveling along 
the Yukon River to stop at Anvik to talk about their work with him and his staff. 

     Although apparently eager to study the seven skulls he sent to the museum, 
he relocated other remains from their original graves to another part of the 
cemetery near the mission.

     Rico read a statement from herself and her sister, Anna, which requested 
forgiveness for the wrong that had been done. Anna's son, John Henry 
Chapman Congdon, also signed the statement.

'A man of his time'

     "We…know that it has been painful for the people of Anvik to realize
 that he [Chapman] removed skeletal remains from ancestral graves nearly 
100 years ago. Coming to terms with this knowledge has been painful for us,
too," she read.

     Noting Chapman's deep interest in science and respect for local language 
and culture, she said her grandfather "was a man of his time--a time when 
sensitivity to different cultures was not as highly developed as it is today. If he 
were alive today, we are sure he would not have removed the remains. And he 
would rejoice in their return to the place where they belong….It's a relief to know 
that an old wrong has been set right."

     She added, "We hope that you can find it in your hearts to forgive that wrong, 
because we know that forgiveness brings healing over time."

     When she finished, Hannah Painter Maillelle, an elder now living in Grayling, 
rose and stated that as a person born in Anvik she forgave Laura's grandfather
for what he had done.  This was followed by another statement of forgiveness 
by Marsha Jerue, who has lived in Anvik all her life.

     The tables were overflowing with food and guests were invited to eat first, 
followed by local elders and others.  The tables were then cleared away and the 
Anvik Dancers danced for the audience, including an invitational dance, which 
gave everyone a chance to take part.

     Then Gilbert got out his fiddle, and the bishop got out his guitar, and 
they played for over an hour.  Their musical selection included everything 
from hymns to a couple of jigs, with some country gospel songs in between. 
There were even a few dancers on the floor from time to time.  After the
musicians wearied and put their instruments away, elder Poldine Carlo sang a 
few upriver mourning songs to conclude the celebration.

--Donna Miller MacAlpine, is a historian and publisher of the Anvik Historical 
Society newsletter. This article first appeared in Alaskan Epiphany, newspaper 
of the Diocese of Alaska.