Group hopes to release the spirits of its ancestors

There is a growing concern for the Native American culture and the reburial of ancestors.

A group gathered Monday to try to create a solution.

“Hopefully, collectively we can find some way to bring our families and ancestors back home,” said Brian Corbiere, a tribal member.

The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act is a Federal law passed in 1990 and provides a process for museums and Federal agencies to return certain Native American cultural items such as human remains, funerary objects, sacred objects and objects of cultural patrimony – to lineal descendants, culturally affiliated Indian tribes and Native Hawaiian organizations, according to the NAGPRA Web site.

The forum consisted of four panelists who shared their thoughts and strategies to help the effect of NAGPRA and also projected the movie “500 Nations,” which was hosted by Kevin Costner.

Eddie Benton-Banai, Central Michigan University’s Denison Visiting Professor of Native American Studies, wanted to show this video because of how it relates to the Native American culture today and what should be addressed in the forum.

“What we are going to talk about is respect of each others cultures, respect of each other as people, respect of each other as sons and daughters of the one creator and respect for our Mother the Earth,” Benton-Banai said.

Shannon Martin, director of the Ziibiwing Center, became emotional while sharing her feelings about what was happening to her ancestors.

“This was once our grandmothers, this was our grandfather,” Martin said. “Their burial site, at one time, was desecrated and they were unearthed.”

Martin said because of what was happening, the ancestor’s physical journey after their spirits had passed was unable to continue.

Under the NAGPRA law, there are no regulations about disposition of unidentifiable remains of Native Americans and the CMU administration has done its best to help relocate the ancestors back to their tribe, said Willie Johnson, curator of the Ziibiwing Center.
“We are forever grateful (for what CMU has done),” Johnson said.
The Ziibiwing Center is currently working on four cases ranging from difficult to most cooperative and respectful. Martin said CMU is on the cooperative and respectful end of the spectrum.
Many people came to show their support for NAGPRA at the forum and some students came to learn more about NAGRPA and the Native American culture.
“I really enjoyed it,” said Owosso freshman Tyler Porter. “I really like history, so I found this really interesting.”
One student found the NAGPRA forum heart-touching.
“It’s a lot of history high school and text books leave out,” said Essexville sophomore Clare Tamez. “It was definitely moving because I don’t like knowing that people suffer.”
During the spring, there will be a celebration for the 144 ancestors, brought from CMU, to be reburied so their spirits can be released. And 754 associated objects of the ancestors will also be reburied.
For more information see the Ziibiwing Center Web Site.