Return from the Ethnological Museum to Native People in Alaska
Press release from 05/16/2018
The Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation today returned nine objects from the collection of the Ethnological Museum of the National Museums in Berlin to the Chugach Alaska Corporation. Foundation President Hermann Parzinger presented them to the Vice President of the Chugach Alaska Corporation, John Johnson, in the presence of representatives of the American Embassy and the Federal Foreign Office. - English version: please find PDF below German text -
The artefacts are grave goods from Native people from southwest Alaska. They were among the objects brought to Berlin by Johan Adrian Jacobsen, who travelled the American Northwest Coast and Alaska between 1882 and 1884 on behalf of the then Royal Museum of Ethnology (now the Ethnological Museum). There is every indication that the objects came from a grave looting and not from an authorised archaeological excavation. Against this background, the decision to return the objects was made in December 2017 in line with the SPK's basic approach to dealing with its non-European collections and researching provenance.
Hermann Parzinger, President of the SPK, said: "The artefacts were taken from graves without the consent of the Native People and therefore unlawfully. They therefore do not belong in our museums. I am particularly pleased that this return does not mark the end of a collaboration, but that we will, on the contrary, intensify the exchange with the Chugach Alaska Corporation in the course of a co-operation."
John Johnson said: "The Chugach are looking forward to future collaboration with the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, which will lead to various forms of cultural exchange. I am proud and also very grateful for all the efforts that have made this dream come true."
The restituted objects will be presented in the Chugach community in the future, including as part of the annual Chugach Spirit Camp, which serves to promote the exchange of knowledge between the generations and the various tribes that make up the Chugach today. A memorandum of understanding was also prepared with the Ethnological Museum as part of John Johnson's current visit to Berlin. Both sides are interested in developing a joint exhibition for the Humboldt Forum in the coming years, which will also be shown as a travelling exhibition in Alaska.
Burial objects of the Chugach
The artefacts are grave goods from Chenega Island and the now unknown site of Sanradna (Soonroodna) in Kachemak Bay. They include two broken masks and a child's cradle as well as a wooden idol. Masks were usually burnt after use or placed in graves, which is why not many Chugach masks still exist today. The red colour on them indicates the burial context. The wooden idol is probably a shamanic figure that was supposed to protect people from danger and death. In total, the Ethnological Museum owns just over 200 Chugach objects.
The Chugach region in south-west Alaska has been home to people who call themselves Sugpiaq or Alutiiq for several thousand years and were also known as Pacific Eskimos in the past. Around 1,000 to 1,500 years ago, Athabascan-speaking Native American groups, today's Dena'ina (formerly known as Tanaina), also migrated. Today, the Alaskan Natives, who call themselves Chugach, live around Prince William Sound and Cook Inlet. They live in seven communities: Chenega, Eyak, Nanwalek, Port Graham, Seward, Tatilek and Valdez. Regular contact with Europe has existed since the time of Tsar Peter the Great.
The Chugach Alaska Corporation(www.chugach.com) has been representing the interests of the Native people of the Chugach region in Alaska since 1972. Among other things, it is committed to preserving the cultural heritage of these groups.
Restitution
In November 2015, a delegation from the Chugach Alaska Corporation visited the Ethnological Museum with the aim of initiating cooperation for future projects. The background to this was, among other things, the Llangaklluku Llucilerpet Cuumi: Becoming Aware of Our Beginnings project, which aims to create a virtual collection of all Chugach artefacts worldwide. The Corporation then asked the Ethnological Museum for assistance in repatriating any burial artefacts from the region. The US government supported the request for restitution by means of a diplomatic note.
In accordance with its basic approach to dealing with its non-European collections and researching provenance, the SPK carefully examined the context from which the burial objects in the Ethnological Museum originated. In the present case, there is every indication that the objects originate from a grave looting and not from an authorised archaeological excavation. It is clear from Adrian Jacobsen's travel diaries that the graves were opened for the sole purpose of removing their contents. There were no official or state authorisations for this, nor was the consent of the community of origin documented. It was against this background that the decision to return the graves was made.
At the end of the 19th century, Johan Adrian Jacobsen travelled the American Northwest Coast and Alaska for the Berlin Ethnological Museum. The director of the museum, Adolf Bastian, had commissioned him to collect objects that were as "original" as possible and uninfluenced by European culture in order to build up a collection. Jacobsen brought around 3000 objects from the Northwest Coast and around 4000 objects from Alaska to Berlin. His report on the journey is an impressive contemporary document. However, it is characterised less by precise ethnographic observation than by the adventure narrative of a hard-boiled daredevil. Against this background, the journey of the self-proclaimed "captain" will also be at the centre of an exhibition module at the Humboldt Forum, in the sense of a critical examination of the history of the collection from today's perspective.