[tomder55]

I bang my head against the wall at the madness.





Here is the rather lengthy rules created by the unelected branch in 1990 ;and were recently updated in combination with an EO by Clueless Joe. which took into effect this month . It is designed to protect native American artifacts and sites . The rules require museums and institutions to obtain tribal consent before displaying Native American remains and artifacts.

Sounds reasonable on the surface.

But what if a museum had had possession of such items before the new rules went into effect?

The revised regulations gives museums 5 years to take inventory and arrange for repatriation ;or consent to display the artifacts .

Interior Department Announces Final Rule for Implementation of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act | U.S. Department of the Interior (doi.gov)


FACT SHEET: President Biden Signs Historic Executive Order to Usher in the Next Era of Tribal Self-Determination | The White House

I know many of the artifacts are from tribes no longer in existence or of tribes in name only. It would take a massive effort to even identify some of the origins of the artifacts . Museums must be taking the expense of the research into consideration.
Rather than go through that process ;the American Museum of Natural History announced the immediate closure of their Eastern Woodlands and Great Plains Halls . They also plan to cover items in question from their Native Hawaiian exhibits .

Decatur acknowledged one consequence of the closures will be the suspension of visits to them by school field trips. The Eastern Woodlands Hall, in particular, has been a mainstay for New York-area students learning about Native American life in the Northeast.

“The new regulations make it crystal clear,” she said. “It doesn’t prohibit research. It doesn’t prohibit exhibiting native cultural heritage. It only requires prior and informed consent before doing so.

A famed NYC museum is closing two Native American halls. Harvard and others have taken similar steps (ny1.com)


She admits that some of the objects may never be displayed again .

Museums around the country have been covering up displays as curators scramble to determine whether they can be shown under the new regulations. The Field Museum in Chicago covered some display cases, the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard University said it would remove all funerary belongings from exhibition and the Cleveland Museum of Art has covered up some cases. And the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York said Friday evening that it had removed roughly 20 items from its musical instruments galleries.

Museum of Natural History Closes Native Displays Amid New Federal Rules - The New York Times (nytimes.com)

Why the Cleveland Museum of Art is concealing some Native American art (news5cleveland.com)

Denver museum closing "problematic" American Indian hall (denverpost.com)


I just don't see how covering up artifacts and closing museum exhibits advances the study or appreciation of Native cultures .

As the Slimes wrote

At the American Museum of Natural History, segments of the collection once used to teach students about the Iroquois, Mohegans, Cheyenne, Arapaho and other groups will be temporarily inaccessible. That includes large objects, like the birchbark canoe of Menominee origin in the Hall of Eastern Woodlands, and smaller ones, including darts that date as far back as 10,000 B.C. and a Hopi Katsina doll from what is now Arizona. Field trips for students to the Hall of Eastern Woodlands are being rethought now that they will not have access to those galleries.