Repatriation

1.) "In approximately the 1940s or 1950s, 193 cultural items of ivory, 
bone, wood, and stone were removed from the Iyatet site, in Nome 
County, AK, by anthropologist Mr. J.L. Giddings and local guide Mr. 
Louis Nakarak. The objects were subsequently purchased by Mr. William 
Holman of Pacific Grove, CA. Mr. Holman then donated the objects to the 
Monterey Museum of Art on November 20, 1978. The 193 objects of 
cultural patrimony are 42 harpoon or projectile points, 38 pendants or 
beads, 3 fire-starters, 4 hand tools, 6 fishing weights, 37 carvings, 1 
scraper, 3 dogsled runners, 1 club, 4 needles or awls, and 54 other 
objects made of ivory, bone, wood and stone.
In the 1978 Deed of Gift to the Monterey Museum of Art, Mr. Holman 
notes that the objects were excavated from a site 125 miles east of 
Nome, AK, and were said to date to 6,000 years or more before present. 
The location and site of Iyatet matches this description, and the 
Native Village of Shaktoolik in Nome County, AK, is the nearest 
community that claims cultural affiliation with the site and with the 
objects of cultural patrimony removed from the site. The Native Village 
of Shaktoolik has made a claim to these objects and, through 
consultation, has provided information in support of that claim."

 Federal Notice

2.) "At an unknown date, a basket (item 75-6-4) was donated to the SFSU 
Treganza Museum. The coiled basket with a three-stick warp in a round, 
shouldered, narrow necked jar shape measures 8.3 cm in height and 14.2 cm in 
diameter and is made of willow, bracken-fern, redbud, yucca and bird quills. 
There are no records at the Treganza Museum concerning acquisition of this 
item.
Based on ethnographic research and consultation with the Santa Rosa 
Indian Community of the Santa Rosa Rancheria, California, (Tachi Yokut Tribe) 
and the Tubatulabals of Kern Valley, a non-Federally recognized Indian group, 
the basket has been identified as a treasure basket or Osa. This type of 
basket was used for the storage of sacred items such as crystals, abalone 
ornaments and paint and was used to hold a rattlesnake for the rattlesnake 
dance during both Yokut and Tubatulabal spring ceremonies.
Based on consultation, ethnographic research, and museum records, the 
basket is culturally affiliated with the Santa Rosa Indian Community of the 
Santa Rosa Rancheria, California, (Tachi Yokut Tribe) and the Tubatulabals of 
Kern Valley, a non-Federally recognized group. The Tubatulabal people are 
intermarried with the Yokuts in the Kern County area of California. 
Descendants of these Yokuts and Tubatulabals are members of the Santa Rosa 
Indian Community of the Santa Rosa Rancheria, California, (Tachi Yokut Tribe) 
and the Tubatulabals of Kern Valley, a non-Federally recognized Indian group."

 Federal Notice

3.) "Notice of Intent to Repatriate a Cultural Item in the Possession of the

Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University,

Cambridge, MA (February 20, 2011) In 1880 Ernest T. Jackson collected a

buffalo horn spoon in Montana. Sixty-six years later, a relative of Jackson

donated it to the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology. According to the Peabody's records, this spoon came from a Crow grave.

Classified as an "unassociated funerary object," the spoon was scheduled

for repatriation to the Crow Tribe of Montana."

 
(American Indian Art, Volume 27 (2): 82, Spring 2002)