As Duncan Metcalfe sorted through the objects in eight storage rooms at the Museum of Natural History looking for sacred items and human remains from American Indians, he didn't worry about the size of his task.
A memory converted the chore of satisfying the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act passed by Congress from just more work to a labor of love.Metcalfe, the curator of artifacts at the museum, thought about the infant found in an archaelogical site in Glen Canyon, where he helped the Bureau of Reclamation. The very young child had been carefully buried in a rabbit skin robe, with miniature vessels placed around it. A basket had been lovingly inverted over it before it was covered with earth.
"It was a grave. A much-loved child. That brought it home to me, and it changed my views."
Returning human remains and sacred or ceremonial items to American Indian tribes, as required by the act "is the right thing to do. We are treating the ancestors of Indians in the same manner we would want our own ancestors treated."
That doesn't mean it's an easy task.
Nationwide, more than 300,000 objects have been reclaimed by 700 tribes since 1992, according to Tim McKeown, team leader for implementation of the act. (The bill passed in 1990, but it took about two years for most museums to complete an initial assessment of what they had that fit the categories to be returned.) After the inventory, museums had to notify tribes of items with "religious," "funeral" or "patrimonial" significance.
American Indians said the law has been a long time coming. And culturally, nothing is more important to them.
"Indian people feel ancestors' remains are sacred and should not be disturbed," said Forrest Cuch, director of the state Division of Indian Affairs and a member of the Northern Ute tribe. "That is spiritual and cultural across all tribes.
"We simply believe it is disrespectful - disrespectful for anyone. When (artifacts) are returned, it brings harmony. There is a metaphysical imbalance created whenever man is disrespectful to the earth, including to one another."
The Utah Museum of Natural History has identified 2,000 such objects - a very small number when one considers the size of its collections. Some of the items in storage date back to the 1800s when the University of Utah was the University of Deseret. So far, none has been reclaimed. But Metcalfe believes that will change in the very near future.
"Our tribes have been slow to reclaim" artifacts, Cuch said, adding that some tribes are more organized than others. He, too, expects items to be claimed and returned to their rightful places in the near future. That will be accompanied by ceremonies with medicine men or shamans to bless the proceedings.
Other Utah museums, including the prehistoric museum at the College of Eastern Utah, the Edge of Cedars State Park Museum and the Peoples and Cultures exhibit at BYU are going through the same process. But as the state museum, the Museum of Natural History has the largest collection. It tends to be "the repository of last resort," Metcalfe said, and gets a lot of odds and ends, like a single bone that may or may not be American Indian. It's often hard to tell.
Before they started organizing items, the museum staff had the room blessed by a Shoshone holy man. And they've formed a close working relationship with local American Indians.
"The asset to the law is it has museums talking to Native Americans," said Metclafe. "This has revitalized the museum's Indian Advisory Committee."
Another benefit to museums is close association with American Indians has helped them, nationwide, correct mistakes in displays. For example, in Denver, Hopis found mistakes in a display where curators had mixed up two sets of religious regalia.
The repatriation act covers artifacts reclaimed from federal land. Most states have now passed their own laws that cover state land, as well.