Re: A famed racist liberal NYC museum is closing two Native American halls. Harvard and others have taken similar steps

[Progressive racists]

On 05 Mar 2022, Wi1liam T <weaka...@gmail.com> posted some
news:t00k5s$25ou2$1...@news.freedyn.de:

> Progressive racists are at it again. Return the land you STOLE FROM
> THEM!

NEW YORK (AP) — New York’s American Museum of Natural History is closing
two halls featuring Native American objects starting Saturday,
acknowledging the exhibits are “severely outdated” and contain
culturally sensitive items.

The mammoth complex across from Central Park on Manhattan’s Upper West
Side is the latest U.S. institution to cover up or remove Native
American exhibits to comply with recently revamped federal regulations
dealing with the display of Indigenous human remains and cultural items.

The museum said in October that it would pull all human remains from
public display, with the aim of eventually repatriating as much as it
could to Native American tribes and other rightful owners. Sean Decatur,
the museum's president, said in a letter to staff Friday that the latest
move reflects the “growing urgency” among museums to change their
relationships with tribes and how they exhibit Indigenous cultures.

“The halls we are closing are vestiges of an era when museums such as
ours did not respect the values, perspectives, and indeed shared
humanity of Indigenous peoples,” he wrote. “Actions that may feel sudden
to some may seem long overdue to others.”

Earlier this month, Chicago’s Field Museum covered several displays
containing Native American items. Harvard University’s Peabody Museum of
Archaeology and Ethnology has said it would remove all Native American
funerary items from its exhibits. The Cleveland Museum of Art is another
institution that has taken similar steps.

Shannon O’Loughlin, head of the Association on American Indian Affairs,
a national group that has long called for museums to comply with the
federal requirements, welcomed such developments but said the true test
is what ultimately becomes of the removed items.

“Covering displays or taking things down isn’t the goal,” she said.
“It’s about repatriation — returning objects back to tribes. So this is
just one part of a much bigger process.”

Todd Mesek, a Cleveland Museum of Art spokesperson, said the institution
is consulting with Native American groups to secure their consent to
display certain items as well as reviewing archival records to determine
if there is already some agreement on record.

Jason Newton, a Harvard spokesperson, said the Peabody is committed to
returning all ancestral remains and funerary items and has more than
doubled the number of staffers working toward that end in recent months.
The museum also announced this month that it would cover the expenses of
tribal members traveling to campus as part of the repatriation process.

The revised regulations released in December by the U.S. Department of
the Interior are related to the Native American Graves Protection and
Repatriation Act of 1990. The changes include expanded requirements for
consulting with and receiving tribes' consent to exhibit and conduct
research on Indigenous artifacts, including human remains and funerary,
sacred and cultural objects.

Native American groups have long complained that museums, colleges and
other institutions dragged out the process of returning hundreds of
thousands of culturally significant items.

“The only exception to repatriation is if a museum or institution can
prove they received consent at the time the item was taken,” O’Loughlin
said. “But most institutions can’t do that, of course, because these
items and bodies were usually taken through violence, theft and
looting.”

Decatur said in the letter that rather than simply covering up or
removing items in the Eastern Woodlands and Great Plains Halls, the ones
closing this weekend, the decision was made to shutter them entirely
because they are “severely outdated.”

Meanwhile, some displays elsewhere in the museum, including ones
showcasing Native Hawaiian items, will be covered, he added.

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 museum remains committed to supporting the teaching of Indigenous
cultures, Decatur said, and officials are reviewing the new federal
regulations to understand their implications.

O’Loughlin of the Association on American Indian Affairs said there
isn’t as much gray area as museum officials might suggest.

“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.”

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/a-famed-nyc-museum-is-closing-two-nativ
e-american-halls-harvard-and-others-have-taken-similar-steps/ar-BB1hkKf9