Nisqually tribe to receive remains of 6 members

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Nisqually tribe to receive remains of 6 members
McClatchy Newspapers


WASHINGTON — The skeletal remains of six members of the Nisqually
tribe are stored in wooden boxes in the Smithsonian Institution's
National Museum of Natural History. No one knows their names. No one
knows the stories of their lives.

But they're going home soon.

"It is time to put them to final rest," said Carmen Kalama, the vice
chairman of the 650-member tribe.

Some of the remains were donated to the Smithsonian 152 years ago after
a naturalist working with the Pacific Railroad surveys found them in
what is now Pierce County near Fort Steilacoom, the first U.S. fort
north of the Columbia River. Another set of remains was originally
misidentified as those of Chief Leschi, a Nisqually chief who was hanged
outside Fort Steilacoom in 1858, accused of murdering a soldier during a
period of tension between the tribe and settlers.

The documents that have accompanied the remains through the years
provide only sketchy information. Documents that might have shed more
light were lost in a fire in 1865.

Since the passage of a federal law in 1989, the Smithsonian has
"repatriated" or offered to return nearly one-third of the 18,000 sets
of skeletal remains of Native Americans it has in its care. The process
isn't simple, sometimes requiring months of research.

"There is a lot of detective work involved," said William Billeck, who
manages the museum's repatriation office.

Most of the forensic work is old-school. The age of the remains can be
determined by skeletal changes such as bones fusing together or the
growth of teeth. Gender can be determined by inspecting the pelvis or
assessing the "robustness" of the skeleton.

Newer techniques such as DNA and radio-carbon dating aren't used.

"We don't do any destructive testing," Billeck said.
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Three sets of the Nisqually remains are those of children, two are of
teenagers and the other was 25 to 35 years old. Three have been
identified as female. The genders of the three children are unclear.

While it would be unthinkable now, the remains were donated to the
Smithsonian at a time when naturalists were exploring the West, and the
bodies of Native Americans, along with thousands of other items, were
collected and cataloged. The Smithsonian was one of the few museums in
the U.S. at the time.

"Part of a naturalist's interest in the world involves collecting
things," Billeck said. "There was a lot of interest in the differences
among people, the differences among tribes."

Paper trails

Much of the hunt to link the remains to specific tribes involved
pursuing paper trails of entries in old ledgers or letters from those
who donated the remains.

George Suckley, a well-known naturalist and biologist who worked with
the Pacific Railroad surveys, sent three sets of Nisqually remains to
the Smithsonian in 1855, Billeck said.

An entry in a ledger book said the remains were found near Fort
Steilacoom and that they were "flatheads," a cranial modification that
was fairly common among Northwest tribes, Billeck said.

"We couldn't find any letters from Suckley," he said.

Suckley sent another set of remains that also was found near Fort
Steilacoom in 1860.

Edward Giddings, a surveyor who also worked on the railroad surveys,
donated the fifth set of Nisqually remains to the Smithsonian in 1869.
According to an entry in a ledger book, they were the remains of Chief
Leschi. That entry was discredited when a close examination showed they
were the remains of a 13- to 16-year-old girl.

A man named Frank Golson turned over the final set of remains to the
Smithsonian in 1907. Golson indicated that they were found on an island
in the Nisqually River. Billeck didn't want to be more specific, to
protect the island from modern-day grave robbers.

"We have to be careful how much information we give out," he said.

The remains will be returned to the Nisqually tribe later this year. The
Smithsonian also will return a funerary object — a spoon made from a
horn — that was donated in 1921.

The Smithsonian stores the remains in wooden boxes in rows of cabinets
in a large room. Only employees are allowed in. Others who wish to view
the remains need the tribe's permission. A private room in which the
remains are handed over to the tribes also has been set aside.

"These things are handled with care and concern," Billeck said.