Post by Okwes on Jan 12, 2007 12:26:49 GMT -5
Remains in Yellowstone go to tribes
By MIKE STARK
Billings Gazette Saturday, December 02, 2006
www.casperstartribune.net/articles/2006/12/02/news/wyoming/d6aadb\
573977ca0f872572360005829d.txt
<http://www.casperstartribune.net/articles/2006/12/02/news/wyoming/d6aad\
b573977ca0f872572360005829d.txt>
BILLINGS, Mont. -- The long journey of a human skull found in the 1880s,
and stored for years at Yellowstone National Park, may soon come to an
end.
Park officials hope in coming months to return the skull to the
Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Reservation.
The transfer is part of a nationwide effort over the past 15 years to
identify American Indian artifacts being held by federal agencies and
return them to tribes.
A sheepherder found the skull at his camp northeast of Logan, near Three
Forks, according to park records.
W.H. Everson of Bozeman, Mont., obtained it in 1886 and later sold it to
Sen. F.C. Walcott and George Pratt, who donated it to Yellowstone in
1930. The park held onto the skull until a 1990 law required the Park
Service and other agencies to begin looking for American Indian
artifacts in their collections.
The skull is complete, probably from a female, and includes a single
tooth, according to Rosemary Sucec, Yellowstone's cultural
anthropologist. There's also a detached lower jaw with six teeth.
It's unclear whether the skull was taken from a burial site, Sucec said.
Everson, in his writings, said he encountered "several lodges of
Flatheads" in the area where the skull was found, according to federal
records.
Park officials recently consulted a long list of tribes about the skull.
Officials from the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes confirmed
that their ancestors routinely camped in the area.
That's enough evidence to suggest that the skull be turned over to them,
Sucec said.
The skull is the last set of remains at Yellowstone to be returned to
tribes.
Earlier this year, Yellowstone turned over three sets of remains and
several burial objects found near Yellowstone Lake in the 1940s and
1950s.
The Eastern Shoshone Tribe of the Wind River Indian Reservation and the
Shoshone-Bannock Tribes of the Fort Hall reservation took possession of
the bones and reburied them Oct. 1 in ceremonies inside Yellowstone.
Sucec said the process is an important reminder of Indians' presence in
Yellowstone long before European-Americans arrived. The remains gathered
at Yellowstone, typically by collectors interested in native "curios,"
are rightfully being returned where they belong, she said.
"It's all very gratifying for everybody concerned," Sucec said of the
burials last month. "They felt like finally their ancestors could return
to the earth."
By MIKE STARK
Billings Gazette Saturday, December 02, 2006
www.casperstartribune.net/articles/2006/12/02/news/wyoming/d6aadb\
573977ca0f872572360005829d.txt
<http://www.casperstartribune.net/articles/2006/12/02/news/wyoming/d6aad\
b573977ca0f872572360005829d.txt>
BILLINGS, Mont. -- The long journey of a human skull found in the 1880s,
and stored for years at Yellowstone National Park, may soon come to an
end.
Park officials hope in coming months to return the skull to the
Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Reservation.
The transfer is part of a nationwide effort over the past 15 years to
identify American Indian artifacts being held by federal agencies and
return them to tribes.
A sheepherder found the skull at his camp northeast of Logan, near Three
Forks, according to park records.
W.H. Everson of Bozeman, Mont., obtained it in 1886 and later sold it to
Sen. F.C. Walcott and George Pratt, who donated it to Yellowstone in
1930. The park held onto the skull until a 1990 law required the Park
Service and other agencies to begin looking for American Indian
artifacts in their collections.
The skull is complete, probably from a female, and includes a single
tooth, according to Rosemary Sucec, Yellowstone's cultural
anthropologist. There's also a detached lower jaw with six teeth.
It's unclear whether the skull was taken from a burial site, Sucec said.
Everson, in his writings, said he encountered "several lodges of
Flatheads" in the area where the skull was found, according to federal
records.
Park officials recently consulted a long list of tribes about the skull.
Officials from the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes confirmed
that their ancestors routinely camped in the area.
That's enough evidence to suggest that the skull be turned over to them,
Sucec said.
The skull is the last set of remains at Yellowstone to be returned to
tribes.
Earlier this year, Yellowstone turned over three sets of remains and
several burial objects found near Yellowstone Lake in the 1940s and
1950s.
The Eastern Shoshone Tribe of the Wind River Indian Reservation and the
Shoshone-Bannock Tribes of the Fort Hall reservation took possession of
the bones and reburied them Oct. 1 in ceremonies inside Yellowstone.
Sucec said the process is an important reminder of Indians' presence in
Yellowstone long before European-Americans arrived. The remains gathered
at Yellowstone, typically by collectors interested in native "curios,"
are rightfully being returned where they belong, she said.
"It's all very gratifying for everybody concerned," Sucec said of the
burials last month. "They felt like finally their ancestors could return
to the earth."