Hollowed to Hallowed Ground: The 1999 Pecos Repatriation

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In 1999, almost 2,000 ancestors and nearly 1,000 objects were repatriated to the Pueblo of Jemez, largely from northeastern museums, resulting in one of the largest repatriations to occur under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. When the Pueblo of Jemez reclaimed their ancestors and objects, they reburied them near their original resting in place what is now Pecos National Historical Park. This is the story of those ancestors’ journey. It is a story of loss, cooperation, and hope.

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Episode 1

Episode 1: Alfred Kidder

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Transcript

Hollowed to Hallowed Ground: The 1999 Pecos Repatriation- Episode One: Alfred Kidder

Narration (Graveline): Welcome to Hollowed to Hallowed Ground: The 1999 Pecos Repatriation brought to you by Pecos National Historical Park and KSFR Public Radio. This podcast was created in cooperation with and has been approved by the Pueblo of Jemez Tribal Administration. My name is Charlotte Graveline, and I am a Park Ranger at Pecos National Historical Park in Pecos, New Mexico.

Pecos National Historical Park is in Northern New Mexico, about a thirty-minute drive east of Santa Fe. Located in the Upper Pecos River Valley on the edge of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains and the Great Plains, it is a land of pinyon pine and juniper trees with the Pecos River and Glorieta Creek running through it. The area has plentiful wood for building and heating and a great diversity of plants and animals. This diversity has attracted people to the area for thousands of years- from the time of the hunters and gatherers to present-day hikers, fly fishers, and others looking to experience nature.

Archaeologists have identified semi-sedentary agriculturalists living in the valley around 800-900 years ago. Starting in the 1200s, fifty to one hundred room towns, called “pueblos,” were established along the Pecos River and Glorieta Creek. The Pecos People practiced agriculture, focusing on corn, beans, and squash, and made beautiful pottery and textiles. Construction of Pecos Pueblo began in the early 1300s and by the 1400s those living in the smaller nearby pueblos came together to live at Pecos Pueblo. Pecos was a major trade center in the indigenous world with tribal nations coming from the Great Plains to the east and other pueblo nations coming from the Rio Grande Valley to the west to trade goods. Macaw feathers from Central America, buffalo hides and meat from the Great Plains, flint from the Alibates Quarry in Texas, and shells from California and the Gulf of Mexico have all been found by archaeologists at Pecos. Being a major trade center made them a powerful pueblo and the Pecos were known for their many warriors.

In 1540 the first Spaniards came to the Upper Pecos Valley. These first Spaniards were conquistadors looking for precious metals, and, when they didn’t find it, they returned to Mexico. Then, in 1598, the first permanent Spanish settlers arrived in Northern New Mexico, led by the first Spanish governor of New Mexico, Juan de Onate. The Spanish brought many new things to New Mexico including horses, sheep, cattle, pigs, and Old World crops like wheat. They brought metal in the form of tools, weapons, and armor. They also brought European diseases and the Catholic religion. The Franciscan religious order established missions at many of the pueblos in New Mexico with the aim of converting the native population to Christianity. On the secular side, the pueblo people were taxed and forced to labor for the Spaniards. In 1680 Pecos rebelled against the Spaniards alongside other Northern New Mexico pueblos during the Pueblo Revolt. They pushed the Spanish out of Northern New Mexico, tore down the mission churches, and reclaimed their lands for twelve years. When the Spanish returned in 1692, they rebuilt the churches, and Spanish settlements grew. Pecos Pueblo continued to decline in population over the next century. They were faced with fierce raiding from Comanches, drought and famine, the loss of agricultural lands to Spanish settlers, and the continued impacts of European diseases. In 1838, the last Pecos People living at the pueblo left their homes and joined Jemez Pueblo to the west.

Hollowed to Hallowed Ground is a story in three parts. In this first episode, we explore how Pecos Pueblo was quote rediscovered by archaeologists in the early twentieth century. In the second, we discuss the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act and how it provided legal support for the Pueblo of Jemez to have the individuals and associated funerary objects excavated by archaeologists returned to them. In the third and final episode, we hear the story of how those individuals and associated funerary objects made the long journey home. Hollowed to Hallowed Ground is the story of one of the largest repatriations of Native American individuals since the 1990 passage of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. The hundred-year saga is a story of loss, cooperation, and hope.

These episodes were created using excerpts from interviews conducted with those who played a role in the 1999 repatriation, including members of the Pueblo of Jemez, former staff of the Robert S. Peabody Museum for Archaeology at Phillips Andover Academy, staff of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard University, and staff of Pecos National Historical Park. Throughout Hollowed to Hallowed Ground, we rely on oral histories passed down over generations, written historical sources, as well as archaeological findings to tell the story. In this episode we explore the archaeological work that has occurred at Pecos Pueblo and in the Upper Pecos Valley, particularly the work of Alfred Kidder.

In July of 2021, Second Lieutenant Governor Kurt Mora of Jemez Pueblo kicked off our project with a welcome speech in Towa, the language spoken by both the Pecos and Jemez People.

Mora: (opening speech in Towa from interview with Joshua Madalena).

Narration (Graveline): Second Lieutenant Governor Mora explained the speech for us.

Mora: That's kind of a challenge to do this speech because--because it's not really I guess--most of our speeches are pretty formal. And there's a--I don't want to call it normal procedure to how you to do it. But you know, this kind of happening is--kind of is rare. And so, to try to figure out how to incorporate you know, how what happened and how we, how we've gotten here. So, the speech kind of talked about in the past years current, previous administrations had to deal with this, and it finally happened and so I also had to talk about why we're doing this in my speech and so that's kind what’s in it, the intent of what we're doing now.

Narrator (Graveline): To this day the Second Lieutenant Governor at Jemez Pueblo is also known as the Pecos Governor. The position is appointed annually, like the other governorships, and the duties include maintaining a connection to Pecos traditions as well as with the physical site at Pecos National Historical Park. Joshua Madalena, a three term Jemez governor and current tribal councilman shared the origins of the connection between Pecos and Jemez during our interview.

Madalena: Good morning. My name is Joshua Madalena. I'm a three-term governor- served as governor three times in 2010, 2012, and 2014. Served as a lieutenant governor in 2004 and 2008 and served as a war captain in 2000. And currently, I am on the tribal council and also have a job- a regular job. I'm the Executive Director for Five Sandoval Indian Pueblos, Incorporated and serve directly five pueblos that are under the consortium and the other southern pueblos that I kind of somewhat directly- indirectly serve services as well. So, my name in Jemez, Pecos is (speaks Towa) is my birth name. And I am (speaks Towa), of the old clan. Pecos did their migration 50 years before Jemez did their main migration. Pecos are a group of Jemez. Today, you would kind of call it like a clan system. We were told that we didn't have a clan system, beginning of time at Jemez. So, but the Pecos group of people were the ones that did the reconnaissance into this area. So, they were supposed to find a main location for the 20,000 Jemez People coming. So instead of them locating where the eagle is at, they kind of lost track of the area, of the region. So, they made a mistake by following the Sangre de Cristo and make that move into the South. So, when the Jemez People arrived here, you know, where's our family? So, eventually they were able to find the Pecos People but they had already established a very solid village so accustomed to their surroundings and area territory, and so the Jemez, we establish here. And we have been coming to this area prior to the main migration up in the Jemez because of the eagle. So, eventually if we moved here, you know, we didn't find the Pecos until eventually some of our war societies went out looking, did their own reconnaissance, where did they go, and we need to go find them. So, they eventually found them. So, communication always been in existence since then. So that's how we're related. And that was the relationship was reinforced in 1838 when Pecos and the surviving people, families, grandpas, grandmothers, cousins, came to Jemez to seek refuge until they repopulate it and then could go back. So, so when they came to Jemez, it's, you know, for them to repopulate, you know, they had relationships, and then the population increased. So, with that in mind, they went back, I believe what was told was they had gone to speak to the Governor of New Mexico at that time, and they were denied access into the pueblo because they have been turned into land grants and those lands were already given to heirs of some of the Spanish colonists in this area. So, it was very unfortunate. That was something agreed upon, before the movement to Jemez, by the governor at that time. So, after a couple of generations, you know, they were no longer allowed. So, but those people that came to Jemez, those ancestors- Pecos that arrived here, Jemez their refuge- sought refuge became a part of Jemez. And that's how all of the blood then mixed again, how it was before the great, great migration from the north. So that's how we're all blurry later, right now, we all have Jemez and Pecos blood. That's all- that's why, you know, a lot of times people ask, “Where did these people go?” I mean, we're just right at the side of the mountains, we're here. And we can best interpret, like I said, earlier, how Pecos lived because that's how we lived. We both had identical way of life, you know, religion, or way of life, it was identical. That, you know, we had medicinal societies, they had medicinal societies, we had war societies, they had war societies. You know, even when Coronado arrived in that area, there was- what population of 2000, and there was about 500, men- warriors. That's how powerful they were, very powerful. So, I mean, so that's why, you know, we have this connection, still, we're all related. We all have Pecos blood and Jemez blood.

Narration (Graveline): This long, rich history of occupation in the Upper Pecos Valley attracted the interest of archaeologists in the early 1900s. Jim Bradley was Director of the Peabody Foundation for Archaeology from 1990 to 2001 and recounts how American archaeologist Alfred Vincent Kidder first came to Pecos.

Bradley: Kidder was a Harvard PhD, bright young guy from a Boston family, who had learned about stratigraphic excavation, as a grad student, and had learned about this in the Middle East. Especially when sites called “tells” were excavated. A tell is a site that was occupied for thousands and thousands of years and as buildings fell down, and its trash accumulated, basically, these mounds grew up, and they were called tells. And what people were beginning to understand is if you excavate these, you start at the top, that's going to be the most recent and you should go down and you're going to get older and older and older stuff. Now, today, we'd say, “duh, why is this news," but it was news, and it meant when you excavated the site, you didn't just burrow in from the side. Because you, you just have a mush of things. So, Kidder was really impressed with this. And he said, you know, we need to do something like that over here. And a great place to do that would be in the Southwest, where it's dry and where sites were occupied for a long period of time. And so, he spent some time looking around out there, and he found Pecos. And he said- And what is interesting is he wrote a proposal to the trustees of Phillips Academy in 1915. And the museum, now the institute, still has this handwritten document. And it's just amazing because it is so clear in its intent. Kidder knew exactly what he what he wanted to do. And he spent the next 14 years doing it. And not, so, that's the first part that's remarkable. The second part that's remarkable, is that he said, “You know, this is not a one-man show. This is not a one-museum show. This is something where you need to bring people in.” And as a result, he began the Pecos Conferences, which sort of set the standard for how scientists, environmental specialists, folklore specialists, anybody who has an interest in this site, how you get them together to share their information, and, you know, come up with a more coherent understanding, not just of the kinds of pottery that they use, but who was on that site, and why were they on that site? And how did that site change over time? So, in many ways, Kidder’s work at Pecos, and I would argue, and I think many would agree, that was the foundation of scientific archaeology.

Narrator (Graveline): Jeremy Moss is the Chief of Resource Stewardship and Science as well as the Park Archaeologist at Pecos National Historical Park. He explains for us how Kidder’s work at Pecos had a major impact on the field of archaeology- facilitating a transition from a hobby to a science.

Moss: Kidder excavated about 12 to 15% of the site, he established a site and regional chronology. He also identified the building sequences at Pecos Pueblo, which helped interpret the growth of the Pueblo and the cultural history. He excavated and partially reconstructed the Spanish colonial mission church as well. Throughout his work, he was able to study the changes in pottery styles and types--really develop a ceramic typology for the Rio Grande Valley that’s still used today. And he's able to do that by using concepts from stratigraphy and ceramic seriation. By studying changes in pottery style within the soil layers in the trash midden or discard pile at Pecos--with the idea that the pottery that's at the bottom of the pile is older than the pottery on top--and you can look at these changes through time to help relatively date sites, archaeological sites, within the region. At the time a lot of archaeologists were grappling with trying to understand how sites throughout the Southwest related to each other, because there was no absolute dating at that time. There was no C-14 dating or tree ring dating not been developed yet either. So, Kidder really wanted to find a place where he could look at the full range of Pueblo cultural development, from prehistory to Spanish contact. And he thought he found that at Pecos. Unfortunately, he found that the cultural sequence was only 700 years, which is actually pretty large. But he was able to contribute to this larger body of study and literature within the Southwest, related to the building of cultural chronologies. And he really developed one of the first cultural chronologies called the Pecos Classification for the Southwest and Pecos was one of the places that contributed to that.

Narration (Graveline): Alfred Kidder began his excavations at Pecos in 1915, and they continued off and on through 1929. There were many positive things that came out of his work, but the long-term ramifications of those excavations had unintended consequences. He collected pottery, stone axe heads, metates, pipes, flutes, and other artifacts from Pecos. He also uncovered the remains of almost two thousand individuals from the Upper Pecos Valley. It should be noted that Kidder was not looking to dig up burials; however, the burial practices of the Pecos People included burying their dead inside the trash middens as well as inside first-floor rooms in the pueblo. This was done to keep the ancestors close, an important cultural practice. It was also an easier method of burial, as the bedrock at Pecos Pueblo is very close to the surface which makes digging difficult. When burials were found, Kidder would collect the individuals along with the funerary objects found with them. Jim Bradley, who was Director of the Peabody Foundation for Archaeology from 1990-2001, explains how those artifacts ended up all the way across the country in Northeastern institutions.

Bradley: The Peabody had been founded in 1901 by Robert Singleton Peabody, who was the nephew of George Peabody, who was the great benefactor of the Peabody Museum at Harvard, Peabody at Yale, Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore. And Robert, like his uncle George was going to endow a museum and the one he endowed was at Phillips Academy, which is a private secondary school in Andover, Massachusetts. The museum had actually- and I retitled it, the Peabody Museum of Archaeology, instead of the Foundation because, frankly, I got tired of getting requests from other people for money. And that's really not what the intent was. The intent was to be a teaching institution for students at Andover to introduce them to new sciences, such as archaeology. And Robert Peabody himself was an avid avocational archaeologist. This was back in the days when you just dug sites up and recording was maybe okay. It was just growing, archaeology was growing from a collecting business into a science where when you excavate a site you destroy it, and therefore the burden is on you to record as much as you can possibly record. Because otherwise, you're not going to know what the story of this site was.

Narration (Graveline): Now there are two institutions involved in this story that have Peabody in the name. Jim, who we just heard from worked at the Peabody Foundation for Archeology, today called the Robert S. Peabody Museum for Archaeology at Phillips Andover Academy. The other Peabody in this story is the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard University. From here on out, we will refer to them as the Peabody at Andover and Peabody at Harvard. Most of what Kidder excavated in the Upper Pecos Valley was shipped to the Peabody at Andover and the Peabody Museum at Harvard. This included pottery, tools, weapons, sacred objects, and the remains of human individuals.

Alfred Kidder was working for the Phillips Andover Academy during his excavations in the Upper Pecos Valley. However, partway through his work he began sending the excavated individuals to the Peabody Museum at Harvard instead of Andover. Michele Morgan is the Curator of the Osteology and Paleoanthropology Collection at the Harvard Peabody and the Senior Osteologist. She explains how this happened due to a relationship between Kidder and Ernest Hooten, an American physical anthropologist.

Morgan: Yeah, so this happened really because of the connection between Alfred Kidder and Ernest Hooten, so Kidder was a graduate student at Harvard when Hooten joined the faculty in 1913. And then Kidder began directing excavations at Pecos in- or in the Upper Pecos Valley- in 1915 and then a few years later Kidder invited Hooten to collaborate on the project. And, in fact, Hooten went out there in the summer of 1920. So, beginning in 1919 the human remains were transferred from the Peabody Museum in Andover to the Peabody Museum at Harvard. And then subsequently the excavated human remains were shipped directly to Harvard after each field season.

Narration (Graveline): In addition to the 1,922 individuals that would be repatriated from the Harvard Peabody, individuals would also be repatriated to the Pueblo of Jemez from the state of New Mexico and the National Park Service. When Pecos Pueblo became a State of New Mexico historic site in 1935, and later a national monument within the National Park Service in 1965, the excavations continued, though on a much smaller scale. Jeremy Moss, from Pecos National Historical Park elaborated for us:

Moss: Other excavations that occurred at Pecos did disturb or uncover some human remains, some individuals that had been buried in the past, but there really wasn't a whole lot of large-scale excavation after Kidder. Before the National Park Service, when the site was being managed by the State of New Mexico, they did do some minor excavations within the Pueblo including one of the kivas that was reconstructed around that time in the 1930s. And then they also excavated extensively in the Spanish colonial convento in order to expose walls for interpretation so that visitors would have something to see over by the church. Other work done by the Park Service later was primarily in the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s. Most of that work was associated with utility lines or buildings, you know, creating infrastructure for the National Park Service site so that you know people would have facilities to use when they come to Pecos. There was some excavations that were targeted to certain research questions. But a lot of them were responses to inadvertent discoveries of cultural material, sometimes the inadvertent exposure of individuals or burials that then became part of the NAGPRA process later.

Narration (Graveline): Today, it is legally required to consult with affiliated tribal groups prior any sort of work that will cause ground disturbance at the park. In Alfred Kidder’s time, it was not. Kidder had not consulted or notified the Pueblo of Jemez about his excavations, nor had he asked permission to remove the buried individuals or objects from the site. Joshua Madalena, a Jemez tribal councilman offers his perspective as a Pecos descendent on Kidder’s work.

Madalena: I know a lot of archaeology and taking of artifacts happened, or they were stolen. Because, you know, the Western society felt one day, these natives are going to go into it, they're going to go into extinction. So, they wanted to save whatever they could save. But I think it was poor research or no research at all with Bandelier and Kidder, that we had descendants here in Jemez, you know, that, you know, they had documentation in Santa Fe, the Office of the Governors they had documentation there, you know, all the archaeological research wasn't done. And here, they considered themselves, PhDs, you know, I always had a problem with that. So just exhuming our ancestors, I had a problem with that, because of lack of research, always had a problem. And I’d never forgive Kidder, you know?

Narration (Graveline): The work of Alfred Kidder at Pecos with his use of stratigraphy, the development of the Pecos Classification, and launching the Pecos Conferences has been invaluable to the field of archaeology, but his removal of individuals during the excavations at Pecos and their subsequent transfer to museums and institutions far from their original resting places was a deep loss to the People of Jemez and a wound they would carry for decades.

Join us next time on Hollowed to Hallowed as we discuss the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act and the role it played in the 1999 repatriation of individuals and objects to Jemez Pueblo.

Archaeologist Alfred Kidder is one of the foremost figures in archaeology of the American Southwest. His work using the method of stratigraphy to provide relative dating of artifacts in the Upper Pecos Valley was groundbreaking in the early twentieth century. During his work at Pecos, he also uncovered ancestors of the Pueblo People whom he sent to museums in the Northeast, never seeking the permission of the descendant communities, particularly the Pueblo of Jemez.

Tags: pecos national historical park, archaeology, native american, history, culture, new mexico, nagpra, pueblo people, pueblo of jemez, museums, repatriation, alfred kidder

Episode 2

Episode 2: NAGPRA

Transcript

Transcript

Hollowed to Hallowed Ground: The 1999 Pecos Repatriation- Episode Two: NAGPRA

Narration (Graveline): Welcome to Hollowed to Hallowed Ground: The 1999 Pecos Repatriation brought to you by Pecos National Historical Park and KSFR Public Radio. This podcast was created in cooperation with and has been approved by the Pueblo of Jemez Tribal Administration. My name is Charlotte Graveline and I am a Park Ranger at Pecos National Historical Park in Pecos, New Mexico.

In Hollowed to Hallowed Ground we explore one of the largest repatriations of Native American human remains since the 1990 passage of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. These episodes were created using excerpts from interviews conducted with those who played a role in the 1999 repatriation including members of the Pueblo of Jemez, the Andover Peabody, Harvard Peabody, and Pecos National Historical Park. The 1999 repatriation of individuals, funerary objects, and sacred objects to Jemez Pueblo from Harvard University, Phillips Andover Academy, the State of New Mexico and the National Park Service is a story of loss, cooperation, and hope.

In our last episode we discussed Alfred Kidder’s archaeological work at Pecos Pueblo between 1915 and 1929, where the excavated individuals and associated funerary objects were sent, and the damage this did to the descendant communities of Pecos Pueblo, particularly the Pueblo of Jemez.

In this episode we discuss the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act and how it set the stage for the 1999 repatriation of Pecos individuals and artifacts to the Pueblo of Jemez.

Narration (Graveline): According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, “repatriation” means “the act or process of restoring or returning someone or something to the country of origin, allegiance, or citizenship.” Prior to the passage of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, Native American artifacts were held in museums all over the world, often far from their places of origin and descendants. These included funerary objects, sacred objects, and sometimes the remains of individuals. Native Americans had lobbied for decades to have their ancestors and the objects of their people returned to them. In 1989, the National Museum of the American Indian Act was passed. This created the National Museum of the American Indian as part of the Smithsonian Institution. It also transferred the existing Museum of the American Indian and its vast collection of Native American artifacts to the ownership of the Smithsonian Institution. The Museum of the American Indian is located in New York City and was founded in 1916 by a collector of Native American artifacts named George Gustav Heye. As part of the National Museum of the American Indian Act, the Smithsonian Institution was required to inventory the artifacts in their museum collections, including the new collections from the Museum of the American Indian in New York to determine whether they held any Native American individuals or funerary objects. The Smithsonian staff then had to identify the origins of any individuals or funerary objects in those collections and repatriate them to culturally affiliated tribes who requested their return. This resulted in many requests to repatriate individuals and funerary objects from both the Museum of the American Indian in New York and the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.

The National Museum of the American Indian Act’s requirement of inventory and repatriation paved the way for the broader Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, commonly referred to as NAGPRA. In 1990, after years of discussions, lobbying, and multiple attempts to pass similar bills, NAGPRA was passed by Congress and signed by President George H.W. Bush. NAGPRA requires all federal agencies and museums that have received federal funding since 1990 to complete inventories of their collections to determine whether they have the remains of Native American individuals, funerary objects, sacred objects, or objects of cultural patrimony. Under NAGPRA the word “museum” has a broad definition that includes traditional museums, state and local governments, and colleges and universities. The agencies and museums are to determine who the affiliated Tribal Nations are, notify them that they have these remains or objects, and consult with them on repatriation. Museums and institutions that fail to comply with NAGPRA are barred from receiving federal funding and are fined daily until they come into compliance.

Narration (Graveline): Even though the legislation passed in 1990, the repatriation process was a long time in the making for the Pueblo of Jemez. George Toya, a Jemez Pueblo tribal member, assisted the tribal archaeologist William Whatley with Jemez’s first repatriation following the National Museum of the American Indian Act, as well as the 1999 repatriation which fell under NAGPRA.

G. Toya: My name is George Toya. Jemez name is (speaks Towa). I am a Jemez Pueblo tribal member. As I recall, it started in the early 90s, or at about '89 or so when I first talked to William Whatley. And he had, he told me that, that a couple of the traditional leaders who he was in contact with or who became close associates of his had asked him about some Jemez artifacts and about some of the artifacts that were missing. And if he could help them find them. And so, they asked him what he knew about Jemez artifacts, and where they were stored or displayed--in what collections or museums, they could go to find them. Mainly in the eastern United States, because some of the tribal members have been to museums and had seen certain artifacts from the Pueblo of Jemez that shouldn't have been displayed. And so, the word got back to the traditional leaders saying, you know, “How can we get these back? Or how can we get them to take them off, off display?” And so there was, so that started the whole process, and about that time, too, is the time that NAGPRA, the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, was adopted. And so, there are many meetings within the small groups here in the Pueblo which consisted of some of the traditional societies. And they had their meetings and were trying to figure out how to begin this process, you know, and so, it was really new to everybody, including, you know, William and myself, and so we did have to do a lot of research. We had to read what NAGPRA was all about, we had to study it and then once we figured it out, then the traditional leaders and the Jemez People along with along with William Whatley decided that would serve as a way to recover the artifacts--the NAGPRA--and that were either stolen or sold to a number of collectors and museums. But, you know, within the Pueblo here throughout the entire process, you know, from the first repatriation onto the next, there was complete collaboration within the societies and then the Pueblo people. And so, everybody agreed on how the process should go, and there wasn't very much dissension or anything like that, you know, everybody just wanted to get the artifacts back.

Narration (Graveline): This was a long and arduous process for everyone involved. It took years to do all the background work. Pueblo tribal representatives visited the Museum of the American Indian in New York, following the National Museum of the American Indian Act, and later visited the Peabody Museum at Harvard. This was the legwork that needed to be done for repatriation to even be considered. George Toya remembers late nights and reconnaissance trips with William Whatley.

G. Toya: So altogether, it took probably, I would say, eight to ten years, of doing research and of searching for, you know, finding the museums. And once we found the museums, we had to research the museum records. And, you know, they didn't just say, “Here's the records.” They give you the whole thing, he says, “Find them yourself,” you know, so, so that was a hard process, you know, and it took, it took lots of time, because, you know, it took a lot of reading and, you know, like, sometimes we would start at, you know, at seven or eight o'clock at night and or in the evening when he got home from work and, and we go to his house, in Albuquerque, and we wouldn't get out of there until, you know, four in the morning, you know, just going through things all the time. Until we find all these things, and then, but once the records were obtained, and gone over, then the remains and the artifacts had to be visually observed by Jemez Pueblo, either the elders or society members to verify that they were in fact Jemez Pueblo artifacts, you know, so we didn't have any funds, there was no funding to do this. So we, we did some bake sales, we did other types of fundraising, to get the money just to buy a plane ticket, you know. And so, the trips were, they were all done on a shoestring budget, and we shared hotel rooms and packaged food in our luggage and did a lot of walking, you know, man, we walk miles and just going from one place to another, and most of the time, we didn't know where we were going. So, it was just like, he dropped us off. And we go look around until we find what we're looking for, you know. And then. So, you know, when the artifacts were identified at the museum, a small delegation of tribal members, sometimes only one or two, along with Bill Whatley would travel to the museum. And then once we were at the museum, whoever was there with Mr. Whatley, he would, he would usually pull the museum director or whoever was showing us around, he would pull them aside and say, “Can we go talk about this?” you know, he would take them in another room, while we were with the artifacts, and we would write down the numbers, you know, the identifying numbers and descriptions of the artifacts. And so, so in the end, you know, we were able to identify each artifact, by number and description. And once that was--if we could take pictures--it was hard, because we weren't allowed to take cameras or anything in there. So, but we did sneak some. And so, once they were all recorded by ID numbers and physical description, we would compile a written list. And then once we had all the information together, then a formal complaint, formal claim would be made to the museum. And then most of the time, our lists of the artifacts were more detailed and complete than the museum's, you know, and that's what made the process go so much quicker, because the museum would say that, “Oh, it's gonna take us a year or so to compile all this information, to get all this information together.” And then Bill Whatley would just pull out the papers and say, “Are you talking about these items?” And so, they there was no nothing, no recourse they could take you know, so. So that's why we were the first ones to come up--I mean to do the repatriation. And it was large numbers of items. Because of the footwork we did, you know.

Narration (Graveline): Once museums had completed their inventories and notified the affiliated tribal nations, the next step was for the museums and tribes to engage in consultation about the individuals and artifacts. This can be a very complicated process because there are usually multiple affiliated tribes with an interest in repatriation. In the case of Pecos Pueblo, there are multiple tribal nations with an affiliation to the site; however, Jemez Pueblo has such a clear line of descent from Pecos that other tribal nations deferred to Jemez Pueblo on decisions for the 1999 repatriation. Because of Pecos Pueblo’s history as a major indigenous trade center, it was recognized that some of the individuals taken from Pecos were probably not of Pecos descent. However, it was decided during consultation that it did not matter what an individual’s origins were; all of the excavated individuals would be repatriated to the Pueblo of Jemez and reburied at Pecos National Historical Park near their original resting place. It took several years of consultation between museums and Jemez Pueblo to get to the 1999 Pecos repatriation. Raymond Gachupin was the Governor of Jemez the year the repatriation took place.

Gachupin: In 1999, lo and behold, a year after I was a First Lieutenant, I was appointed as the Governor. And that was the year that we- this whole thing kind of came to fruition. And the whole repatriation started to take shape at that point. And it happened. So that's basically kind of my role was to keep it rolling. But I put a lot of faith and trust in Bill Whatley because he's the one that I kind of basically just gave the reins. I said “Do it. Do it and run with it. I'll be there to support in any way that I can in my capacity as a governor.”

Narration (Graveline): The Andover Peabody and Harvard Peabody were not the only institutions repatriating individuals and items to Jemez Pueblo in 1999. The Maxwell Museum of Anthropology at the University of New Mexico had items from excavations done when Pecos Pueblo was a New Mexico State Historic Site and Pecos National Historical Park had items to repatriate as well. Judy Reed was the Cultural Resource Manager at the park beginning in 1995 and through the 1999 repatriation. We discussed the park’s collection and what was repatriated.

Reed: The park’s collection that they quote, owned, was very minimal that met the letter of the law of NAGPRA. And we had, you know, a tooth, a human remain, a bone or two, I guess. And we had a couple of what would be called sacred objects. And I don't think we had any burial objects because we didn't have a- we never, as a Park Service entity- never excavated a full burial that I recollect. And so, we had bits and pieces that just kind of showed up because there's a lot of fill from the Pueblo that got dumped in other places when we had to put in a water line or something- bits and pieces of human remains would show up. So, we had the fewest of all the entities involved. I would say maybe three or four, maybe five individuals from human remains, bits and pieces could be identified. We had maybe a sacred object that happened to be in the collection, that I think I remember one that Jemez thought was sacred, and I think it got reburied, but we had no burial items. So, we had probably less than 10 items and everybody else, you know, like the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard, they had nearly 2000 human remains. And of course, the burial items belong to- at the time, Robert S. Peabody Museum in Andover at Phillips Academy. And although they were stored at the park, they didn't belong to the park, they never had belonged to the park. So, they were the entities that had the most work to do in this whole process.

Narration (Graveline): When NAGPRA was passed, it permanently changed the relationship between the archaeological community, museums, government agencies and tribal nations. Jim Bradley, the former director of the Andover Peabody remembers his initial reaction to NAGPRA.

Bradley: I felt NAGPRA was- well, initially, I was taken aback, because that is a huge change in the lay of the land, the way things are done. It didn't take a lot of thought, for me to decide it was the right thing. Let's just say, as a museum professional, I've seen enough abuses. And because I know and like Indian people, I felt there was validity in what they were asking for, which essentially, was equal protection under the law. So, and then it happened to fit very well with what my needs at Andover were in terms of getting some kind of intellectual control over what was sitting in that building, and where it had come from, and what needed to be done with it. So, from a pragmatic point of view, it was easy to say NAGPRA is great, but I think from a personal point of view, and I feel this even more strongly, and certainly my six years on the review committee, you know, it undid an injustice. Human remains, Indian bones, sacred objects should not be in there with mastodon teeth and stuffed sparrows and natural history specimens. It's just, it's just not right. So, I'm glad that that has been corrected. And I think the museum community has found that this has not destroyed their livelihood. And in fact, in many ways it's created partnerships, as we did with Jemez and Pecos, that has completely enriched their programming. And that's good for everybody.

Graveline: Today, NAGPRA has opened up a dialogue between Native American tribes and the archaeological community. Archaeologists and scientists now consult with Native American tribes and make sure to clearly explain the value of the archaeological record, the material past, and its preservation. Today, many Native American groups, including the Pueblo of Jemez, acknowledge the scientific value of archaeology. Jim Bradley of the Andover Peabody, recalls how the dialogue of consultation with Jemez eventually led to each side understanding the other’s perspective.

Bradley: And you know, as far as they know, someone came, dug up a bunch of their ancestors and took them way back east. And so, while we began to understand what harm that had done in the Pueblo community in Jemez, and you know, from their point of view, you don't just wrench a part of the community away and not have consequences, there are consequences, and they were not good consequences. On the other hand, they began to understand that in our own weird, Western techno fetishy way, we had put a lot of effort into that collection. And so, they started to say, “You know, you've actually been good at surrogate parents, and we are happy to work with you now, to see the right things done.”

Narration (Graveline): Following the 1999 repatriation, the Pueblo of Jemez supported the Harvard Peabody in publishing Pecos Pueblo Revisited, which pulled together the documentation related to the Pecos items that had been in the Harvard Peabody collection and had been repatriated to the Pueblo of Jemez. Michele Morgan was a curatorial assistant at the Harvard Peabody in 1999 and edited the book.

Morgan: Pecos Pueblo Revisited is an edited volume. And the idea for the book came- really developed after the physical repatriation in 1999. I mean, as we've just discussed, a tremendous amount of work went in to producing the inventories and so much knowledge was gained and shared during the many consultation visits and communications. So, the Peabody Museum data verification process had resolved and corrected many questions regarding the provenance of the human remains and the associated funerary objects. And then that together with the physical documentation that I had done, you know, that generated standardized descriptions of all of the human remains from Pecos. So, it seemed important to me to make this available both as a kind of a final record of documentation, but also as a resource for future research and then through conversations with Trish, and we talked about it with members from the Pueblo of Jemez and with other scholars that the scope of the book ended up expanding to really include as much primary data as possible. Along with new insights that were gained into what we call the biological and the social context of those connected to Pecos. And I really would like to stress how grateful I am to the members of the Pueblo of Jemez who were so generous with their knowledge and with their interest in the work that Trish and I and the team were doing, it was really invaluable.

Graveline: Jeremy Moss, Pecos National Historical Park’s Chief of Resource Stewardship explains how NAGPRA changed the relationship between institutions and tribal nations in a broader context:

Moss: Before NAGPRA archeologists really gave little thought to the feelings of Native Americans when it comes to the disturbance of burials. And a lot of decisions were being made without talking to the descendants of these prehistoric cultures, because we have to recognize in many of these places in the Southwest, we can make a direct connection between modern-day Native groups and these prehistoric sites or the ancestors. So, really recognizing that has changed a lot- we consult a lot more, we also consider how we design projects, both on archaeological projects and facility projects to make sure that we're disturbing less, and really trying to focus on what are our research questions, and often trying to avoid disturbance of human remains, because of the fact that we recognize that it causes a lot of pain for Native Americans- the idea that their ancestors are being disturbed for a scientific inquiry. It's also created a bit of, you know, conflict and consternation in the archaeological community because ultimately, it's about learning about the past through things that are left behind. But to a lot of Native Americans, they don't want us to view their ancestors as objects- as things, and that's why we refer to them as individuals. And we try to avoid using the term "human remains" because it implies that they're just objects to be studied. But these terms tend to stick, and they're hard for us to lose easily. Not everybody understands what it means when we say individuals. NAGPRA, has also changed the practice of archaeology because it has legal, political, social, and intellectual ramifications, some of which we've touched on.

A big thing NAGPRA also changes is that it really gives Native Americans property rights to grave goods, cultural patrimony, and a right to repatriate which is ultimately what we're talking about today as it relates to Pecos. NAGPRA does not apply on private lands, however. It only applies to federal lands or- individuals or associates funerary objects acquired during federal projects. So that creates a lot of consternation, you can imagine, amongst Native American groups, because they do not see a distinction in property when we go back to prehistory when none of the land was really owned.

Graveline: George Toya, who assisted with the legwork for multiple repatriations to Jemez Pueblo gives a Jemez perspective on NAGPRA.

G. Toya: Well, though the repatriation of the artifacts and human remains is thought by the museums and the scientific community to be a huge scientific loss. But then there's also the moral aspect of having respect for the remains of our ancestors. And they don't deserve to be kept in boxes, and in the cold shells of a building, that are thousands of miles away from their home, you know, from where they originated, and each one of the ancestors that was dug up and taken- they were buried with respect and ceremony and items that- to help them on their journey to the afterlife. And there's so many other remains of other indigenous people throughout the world that are being kept in museums and warehouses that need to be returned to their people. And with the- and now with the news of the remains of indigenous children that died in Christian boarding schools, across the US and Canada and the rest of the world where European colonizers attempted to kill the Indian and save the kid, the child, you know, the ongoing repatriation effort will continue for the next few generations. And we need to understand that although the human remains and artifacts that are held in the most prestigious museums throughout the world, are beautiful and interesting to observe, the majority of them were just taken or stolen without regards for the feelings or opinions of the descendants of those people. That's what I got.

Graveline: NAGPRA was long time coming for Native Americans and when it was passed by Congress and signed by the president, it shook the foundations of the museum world. It has enabled hundreds of tribal nations to repatriate their ancestors and funerary objects, along with sacred objects and objects of cultural patrimony. In many cases, museums and federal agencies have developed new relationships with their affiliated tribal nations and dialogues have been started. There is now a sense of common purpose. Jeremy sums up for us:

Moss: I think from my perspective, the shift in ethics has to do with shifting away from a merely collections-focused archaeology and endeavor to just stuff museums with cool stuff that will allow people- towards more of a focus on targeted research questions and also involving tribal communities in developing these research questions. So, we're not just trying to collect things to collect things. We have scope of collections that define what we're supposed to be collecting and why. And the limitations on that now, since NAGPRA came in, you know, really relate to human remains and individuals as well, we really try to avoid bringing human remains into our collections. Partially because of NAGPRA, but also because the Native American groups have told us, they don't want their ancestors in a box on a shelf. So, you know, we try and leave individuals or human remains in place as much as possible.

And sometimes there are cases where, you know, Native groups are working with archaeologists, and this has become much more common and is really also developed out of NAGPRA, it's kind of forced us to work together more, which has made a much more richer, you know, understanding of the past, and much more richer narrative where, you know, we study human remains in place, within the burial and don't remove them from the burial, and then rebury them right in place. So, they don't even have to be brought into a collection storage facility, catalogued, go through that whole process. So sometimes that happens, because there are a lot of Native groups who are really interested in learning about the past, because we can learn a lot by studying, you know, individuals in burial context, not only religious aspects, but aspects of diet, health in the past, mortality, many things that help us understand how people used to live and hopefully can inform us for today.

Narration (Graveline): Join us next time on Hollowed to Hallowed as we discuss the 1999 repatriation and reburial event at Pecos National Historical Park.

When the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act became law in 1990, it provided Native American communities with legal backing to reclaim their ancestors and certain objects from cultural institutions that receive federal funds. The Pueblo of Jemez immediately began the NAGPRA process to return their ancestors and objects home, but the process took several years of consultation with the museums and government entities involved. Over that time a mutual respect and understanding developed.

Tags: pecos national historical park, archaeology, native american, history, culture, new mexico, nagpra, pueblo people, pueblo of jemez, museums, repatriation, alfred kidder

Episode 3

Episode 3: The Repatriation

Transcript

Transcript

Hollowed to Hallowed Ground: The 1999 Pecos Repatriation- Episode Three: The Repatriation

Narration (Graveline): Welcome to Hollowed to Hallowed Ground: The 1999 Pecos Repatriation brought to you by Pecos National Historical Park and KSFR Public Radio. This podcast was created in cooperation with and has been approved by the Pueblo of Jemez Tribal Administration. This is the story of one of the largest repatriations of excavated Native American individuals and funerary objects since the 1990 passage of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. The hundred-year saga is a story of loss, cooperation, and hope.These episodes were created using excerpts from interviews conducted with those who played a role in the 1999 repatriation including members of the Pueblo of Jemez, the Andover Peabody, Harvard Peabody, and Pecos National Historical Park. Throughout Hollowed to Hallowed Ground, we rely on oral histories passed down over generations, written historical sources, as well as archaeological findings to tell the story. In this episode, we’ll explore the repatriation itself.

Momentum for the 1999 repatriation had been building ever since the 1990 passage of NAGPRA. Consultations between the Pueblo of Jemez, the Harvard Peabody, Andover Peabody, and Pecos National Historical Park had lasted years, and relationships had been built over that time. The end goal of all parties was for the individuals and funerary objects to be repatriated to the Pueblo of Jemez and for the individuals to be reburied in the same area they had been taken from. That meant inside the boundaries of Pecos National Historical Park. Bringing this event to fruition involved a lot of planning and coordination for all involved parties. In mid-May of 1999, representatives from the Pueblo of Jemez flew to Massachusetts to prepare the individuals and associated funerary objects for transport back to New Mexico and to participate in formal repatriation ceremonies at both the Andover Peabody and Harvard Peabody. The formal repatriation events legally transferred ownership of the individuals and funerary objects from the institutions to the Pueblo of Jemez. It was the beginning of an emotional homecoming. Among the representatives was Joshua Madalena, who was a Special Research Assistant with the Pueblo of Jemez Department of Resource Protection at the time.

Madalena: We went there just to do the inspections, went to visit, you know, did our prayers or paid our respects, you know, made our apologies that it took this long for us to come back and get them to return them home. And it was very emotional. You know, I still get emotional now. It's really, it was really sad. It is sad to have your ancestors, you know, exhumed, you know, just like that, that they were treated like, you know, they weren’t humans- they were treated like animals. And we, like I said, we paid our respects and we you know, provided them offerings to eat because I'm sure they hadn’t eaten for a long time traditionally, because they had been just stuck in boxes all this time. So, we spent a lot of time with the ancestors and just trying to make that connection. Just try to just feel you just have to feel--Rueben and I are, we're religious leaders, we're medicinal religious leaders. So, definitely we understood, you know, because somebody in our position already sent them to heaven, we call heaven, but we call (speaks Towa), and closed those doors that you will never return or your body will forever be a soul and go to heaven, as you understand it. So, here they are in (speaks Towa), non-Indian comes and takes them out of their resting place where they were meant to be forever. So, you know, we just try to make sense of this, you know, and try to- so after, you know, maybe some time, we kind of felt, you know, okay, we'll leave them for tonight, they know we're here, they know that they are going home, so they're happy. They're, they're excited, they're laughing, they're singing, so we know, we know. So, come back tomorrow. And so, next day is when the rest of the elders would come in, and so we had all this whole public event that was on schedule.

Narrator (Graveline): The Jemez representatives also attended the formal repatriation events at the Harvard Peabody and Andover Peabody. Patricia Capone, the current Director of NAGPRA and a Museum Curator at the Harvard Peabody, was a Curatorial Assistant working on the repatriation in 1999 and recalled for us the repatriation ceremony at Harvard which occurred on May 17, 1999.

Capone: The respective governors and lieutenant governors were present. And director of the museum at the time. There were photographs and words were exchanged. Very similar to the tone that Michele just set. One of gratitude for the relationship that had been cultivated through this experience, and through NAGPRA and the prospect of carrying forward some of what had been learned through this, but as well as supporting the pueblo’s goals for care and handling and reinterment afterwards.

Narration (Graveline): Jim Bradley, the Director of the Andover Peabody at the time, attended the event at Andover on May 20, 1999 and recalled it for us.

Bradley: The repatriation at Andover was, well, sort of like any event at a somewhat stuffy, private school in New England. You know, people wore nice clothes, although I must say the guys from Jemez had much better clothes than we did.

Narrator (Graveline): Following the formal repatriations, the Jemez representatives went to Harvard to oversee the loading of the Pecos individuals and other items for their transport back to New Mexico. There were so many individuals and funerary objects--nearly 2,000 individuals and more than 1,000 funerary objects--that a semi-truck had to be used. Raymond Gachupin, Jemez Governor in 1999 remembers the logistical and financial challenges of such an undertaking:

Gachupin: We actually also witnessed and stood there and watch all the boxes being loaded into the semi-truck that we had leased. And again, that's the whole- that's part of the planning was that perhaps I didn't talk about a bit earlier was that we also had to plan the actual transport. So, and how we accomplished that was we had, again, I don't know how many times they're gonna mention Bill Whatley. But he again also organized all of that. And Bill was a very out-of-the-box, thinker-type of person, you know, so he said, “Well, I think we can find a way to-“ because we didn't have the money. You know, we're very poor tribe. We just didn't have the funds. You know, how we're going to transport? Because it was kind of was fifty some thousand dollars that was going to cost to transport the remains, and we had to, we had to rent the big semi-truck. So, Bill came up with the idea that well, we have contractors that we work with, maybe they can do a little bit of a donation here, you know, and so we contacted them and showing up, they were more than happy. And they, I believe they picked up about two-thirds of the cost. So, the tribe only had to do like a third of the cost, with- it was a construction company. And I really think they deserve a shout out. But I mean, unfortunately, I just can't remember the name of the company at this point. But there were a Native American-owned construction company that had done some work with the tribes. And so, we kind of reached out to them to see it they could help with the cost of the transport as well. So that's how we ended up paying for the transport.

Narrator (Graveline): The Pueblo of Jemez sent representatives along to supervise the transport back to New Mexico in a van that would follow the semi-truck. One of those representatives was their Head Fiscale that year, Michael Loretto. At Jemez Pueblo the Fiscale is an important cultural and religious position whose duties include the handling and burial of the dead. Michael recalled the trip from Massachusetts to New Mexico for us.

Loretto: I was involved with a lot of supervision here in the pueblo. What we did was we load them up in the semi and there was a day- it was a Mr. Whatley and a few other guys, we travel in a van with Mr. Whatley hooked up the radios with the semi, so we can communicate as we're coming. We asked for the van all the way back to New Mexico back in Santa Fe, that's where we spent the night. So, we had to spend the night outside by the semi just make sure nobody comes around or nobody disturbs or anything. And then that's what happened we escort the van back. This was a long travel and the only place we could stop was the truck stops.

Narration (Graveline): The van and the truck loaded with the individuals and artifacts travelled more than 2,000 miles for two days straight. They did not stop for rest until they reached the Santa Fe Indian School the day before the reburial event, and they spent the night there. Meanwhile, back in New Mexico, the tribe and local communities had been busily planning. Raymond Gachupin, the Jemez Governor in 1999, recalled for us the initial great excitement in the community.

Gachupin: Once we knew that we were going to be going through with this repatriation. I mean, all the stars have lined up, and we're going to be going through with it. We call the community meeting at the- what we refer to as our civic center here. We had a overflow of people. They're very enthused, excited. And at that point, you know, it's, you know, well they had been kept informed through our newsletter as well, you know, what was going on. So, we had a lot of turnout, because there was- they just wanted to be involved. So, at that point, a lot of people started the planning and saying, we'll do this, we'll do that.

Narration (Graveline): Among other things, the Pueblo of Jemez decided to retrace the 106-mile route between Pecos Pueblo and Jemez Pueblo that the ancestors had originally taken in 1838 when the last Pecos People left the Pecos Valley and joined the Pueblo of Jemez. Their goal was to end up in Pecos at the same time as the semi-truck in order to accompany their ancestors to the park. It took three days to walk to Pecos. Jemez Governor Raymond Gachupin shared with us.

Gachupin: So, a lot of our tribal members retraced the route that our Pecos ancestors took, the 35 or so that were still alive and remaining from any kind of potential loss of life that they were experiencing in Pecos back in the 1830s or so. And that group that migrated across the mountains, we retraced their route. And quite a few people took that route. It took three days to do the route from Jemez. And thank God, we have people like Cochiti, who helped- hosted them overnight. And then up to Santa Fe Indian School, where they hosted them there for another night. And then the third day, they reached the destination there in Pecos. So that was how the community got involved through that particular planning and involvement and actual participation.

Narration (Graveline): Jemez tribal member George Toya, helped organize the 106 mile journey. He remembers how much community support and coordination was required to make this journey a success:

G. Toya: The preparation made by the tribal members back home involved planning the walk back to Pecos, getting the tribal members to Pecos, the food preparation and transportation, and then connecting with the people along the way, like in Cochiti and Santa Fe at the Indian School where the walkers were being put up for the night, and then just feeding all those people, you know, that was a lot and so, you know, there was donations from people, from tribal members- from anybody, you know, there's other people from the town of Pecos that prepared a lot of food, and they were real accommodating too, they offered their places for people to stay and they brought water and all kinds of things like that, you know, so, there were so many people involved with the repatriation itself, you know, along with the staff at the monument and just everybody wanted to help you know, it was pretty good. You know, there was- I had people from Cochiti call me and asked if they could donate. You know, they didn't have much to give, but they said they would bake stuff and help feed the people. And so yeah, it was real community effort and a lot of the other pueblos, that when they heard that this was happening, they were really supportive. And so, it was pretty good. I got to meet a lot of different people that I would never have met, you know.

Narrator (Graveline): Meanwhile, at Pecos National Historical Park, the preparations for hosting a reburial event began by identifying a suitable grave site that would be large enough to accommodate the 2,000 individuals. It would need to be private, closed to the public, and would require heavy machinery to dig a trench six feet deep. The park also had to choose a spot close to the pueblo, but where they were unlikely to disturb any other burials. Judy Reed the Cultural Resource Manager at Pecos National Historical Park in 1999 remembers:

Reed: Planning- just before the reburial- planning kind of centered around two different things. One was getting a burial site identified and ready and the other was administrative, you know, fixing the park with the amenities needed to have such an event there. So, we got information from the Pueblo of Jemez about how they wanted their gravesite to- not to look but the dimensions of it. So, we used those parameters and dug a grave. What was interesting about that is that it's a very, very big grave. And we had a volunteer that worked with us- two volunteers actually- he was a pilot and the other photographer. And they went up in an airplane after the grave was dug and they took some overhead shots of it. Close so you can't tell where it is. But they took some overhead shots of it and when the pictures were developed, it came back as a big “W” sort of like the Walgreens “W” it looked like that. And interestingly enough, the Jemez they call themselves, I believe, the Walatowa Tribe. And so, it was- we didn't do that intentionally at all but it came back that way and we thought, “Oh, this is a sign, this is a good sign.”

Narrator (Graveline): On May 22, 1999, Jemez tribal members, members of other tribal nations with connections to Pecos, political representatives, staff from the National Historical Park, the Peabody at Andover, the Peabody at Harvard, and the Maxwell Museum all gathered at the park for the reburial. The park remained closed to the public through the morning while the reburial and celebration took place. People began arriving before daybreak to prepare. A stage was erected for prayers and speeches. Pueblo women arrived and began cooking for the celebration following the reburial. 1999 Pueblo of Jemez War Captain David Yepa recounts:

Yepa: So, we stopped at Santa Fe, we spent a night in the Santa Fe, the next morning we went to Pecos. And then we were at the Pecos. People here and at Jemez were informed that all the village people who want to go to the funeral, they can go, and there's a lot of people from here that attended. We had a like a funeral and a procession, like march, we were behind the truck while the people- all the people were following behind the trucks. We got to the burial ground, and that's what happened- unload all of the people and bury them. That part we didn’t see it but then we move on to the spot and we pray for all the dead people out there. It was very sad because they've been there how long? We don’t know. They need to go home and probably their grandma, their mom and dads are waiting for them in another spirit world. So, it took them that long to be finding a way to get to heaven or wherever they went. So, we have a lot of (speaks Towa) our traditional way of doing so that they can go find a straight road to get to heaven or spirit world. That's what happened. That was a War Chief’s duty to do that.

Narrator: The most important part of the day was the reburial of the ancestors. George Toya, Jemez tribal member recalls helping unload the individuals from the semi-truck at the park.

G. Toya: I was in the truck, and everything was loaded in these boxes, you know, they were small boxes like this. And so, I got in the truck. And then my two other brothers, my brother, Mike and my brother (Jaime?), so I mean, were next to me. So, we started opening the boxes, you know, and then handing them down and it was like a bucket brigade all the way down to the gravesite and we started unloading them and then, and it was just, it wouldn't stop, you know. We put one and then there was more and then more and more and then just layer after layer, you know, and it was pretty incredible. And so, once everything was done, once all the bodies were placed and covered, you know, and we went back to the monument, back to the gravesite and everybody had gathered, then there was a huge storm that happened like a big- it got really cloudy, and then a big wind came. And that was as soon as the burial was over. And everybody's holding onto there- and this big wind comes through and then it then it left. And then the sun came out again. And it was just a nice calm day. That was what I remember the most.

Narration (Graveline): David Yepa, the War Captain for the Pueblo of Jemez in 1999, served as the Master of Ceremonies for the prayers and speeches following the burial. I asked him what stood out to him the most from that day.

Yepa: (speaks Towa) The hurt was the most probably (speaks Towa) sadness. Because you see that we're crying at that moment. After that, I remember start talking again. Back to normal after reburial and everything and all the people go to different places to go eat or spend a little time. Yeah, that was that day.

Narration (Graveline): One of the speakers that day was the Governor of Jemez Pueblo, Raymond Gachupin. He recalls for us the celebration that followed.

Gachupin: The burial- after the burial, I mean, there was a saw- you know, there was of course a sadness, you know, and both mixed sadness and very happy. I’d say jubilant. Afterwards, you know, we of course, people were fed- thank god again for the all over community members that did a lot of the cooking so there were lots of food, and then there were some, there were a few speeches, I had had an opportunity to address the crowd as well. And the weather was beautiful. I mean, it just seemed like even our spirits- just- you could just feel a sense of spiritual vibrancy around the area there, you know, it was just really so pleasant. Even there, I remember there was almost like a little slight whirlwind, you know, just kind of rolling around like a, like for, like almost being, thank god we're home. You know, that type of a feeling. It was sad also, but very, very joyful. Very joyful. I mean, just to see more tribal members just being emotional and being very upbeat and happy and to see that many of our ancestors- and again, some of those ancestors may have been either- they may have been Comanche, but at that point, you know, we just wanted them home where they were, they were dug up with what they were laying in peace. But it was a very beautiful, jubilant day. Very nice, pleasant.

Narration (Graveline): Joshua Madalena, the Special Research Assistant who planned the repatriation and now serves as a tribal councilman, also recalled his strongest memory from the reburial day at Pecos.

Madalena: For me, is when all of the ancestors you know, we took them out of the boxes. And I stood there watching over the ancestors and asked them to bless us to continue to strive and move forward to sustain our Pecos Pueblo, and our sister Jemez Pueblo. And for us, to continue to move forward in what's in the best interest. So, you know, it was-I mean, to stand there before your ancestors that had been dug up 70 years before, you know, I was really sad. And, I mean, I knew- at that time, you know, and I do today, that they are returned back to their families, you know, and that they are there in spirit in as our own gods, protecting us blessing us, providing us sustenance and providing sustainability for us to continue to strive to the future, what's in the best interest of our children and those children that are still yet to be born. So, it's a great feeling. It's a great feeling. Sad feeling too, but it's a great feeling, was a great moment. It was a great moment. You know, so you know, I, you know, the whole Pecos repatriation, the reburial, to me, it kind of happened, like it happened yesterday, you made a lot of it, it's just still here in my mind never forgot, never forgot some of the ancestors and how they looked at me back as I watched them, as I looked at them with their eyes open. Even the little ones, you know, you know, I just, you know, I know atrocities happen throughout the world, but they happened to us, it happened here at home. Something that, you know, yeah, it can be forgiven, we can forgive but, you know, Kidder really damaged us emotionally, physically, psychologically, he really did. Even till today, I feel that because of what Kidder did a very long time ago, and I have never met this man before. I would consider him not a man because he did what he did. That was inhumane. Yeah, so yes, I'm sure. You know, he's paying his debts, whatever, wherever he is. But that's that. Today we live, you know, yes, we as Native Americans are always very forgiving. We are. But, you know, we are human beings too. We feel pain, we feel emotions. We cry. We laugh. That's something that still we need to continue to stress to the world out there.

Narration (Graveline): Today, the location of the reburial site within Pecos National Historical Park is unmarked and not shared with the public. 1999 Jemez Governor Raymond Gachupin explains that decision:

Gachupin: I think that there's always very curious people out there that always going to want to start- and the fear of people that are very uncouth people that just simply don't care. I mean, you know, they can start digging again. You know, I think for protection, just like what the act says “the grave protection”- for the protection of our- so that they don't get dug up for the second time. You know, I think that's probably the simplest way to put it.

Narration (Graveline): Chief of Resource Stewardship at Pecos National Historical Park, Jeremy Moss describes how the park protects the site today:

Moss: We manage it as a protected archaeological site, pretty similar to how we manage or protect other archaeological sites within the backcountry that aren’t open to visitors. We've also been asked by the Pueblo of Jemez to let them know if anyone comes and wants to request visitation of the site. We do get Jemez tribal members and some other tribal members who come and want to do prayers and blessings there. We've been asked to contact the Pueblo of Jemez and get permission from the governor of the Pueblo of Jemez before we allow those individuals to visit the site. Sometimes a Park Service representative, or tribal liaison might accompany them to the site, just to make sure, you know, that the site's being protected. But we really haven't had much issues since the reburial with trespass. We do have law enforcement that also does periodic patrolling of the area and looks for evidence of trespass or people going there that aren't supposed to.

Narration (Graveline): Thank you for joining us for Hollowed to Hallowed Ground: The 1999 Pecos Repatriation. Some Native American groups call NAGPRA civil rights legislation, because it has given them equal rights in regards to the treatment of their dead. However, across the world there are still Native American individuals or burials, funerary objects, sacred objects, and objects of cultural patrimony in museum collections. NAGPRA does not address the many individuals and objects held in private collections here in the United States or abroad. In that regard NAGPRA remains a controversial law for not going far enough in its scope. When approximately 2,000 individuals and more than 1,000 funerary objects were repatriated to the Pueblo of Jemez in May of 1999, it became one of the largest repatriations in United States history. For the Pueblo of Jemez, NAGPRA provided the legal framework to right a historic wrong and bring their ancestors home. It also helped to build and strengthen partnerships that continue to exist today between the institutions involved and tribal partners. Pecos National Historical Park recognizes that repatriation is a painful and difficult topic for Native Americans, and we thank the Pueblo of Jemez for their participation and support of this project. Today, we recognize and appreciate the partnership we have with the pueblo and the role that the 1999 repatriation played in strengthening that bond. We close for a final time with Second Lieutenant Governor of Jemez Pueblo Kurt Mora.

Mora: Hello again. My name is Kurt Mora, the 2021 Second Lieutenant Governor for the Pueblo of Jemez. On behalf of the Pueblo of Jemez, I would like to thank Pecos National Historical Park in the coordination of this podcast series as well as other entities involved with this series. I would also like to thank those community members whom were selected to provide their perspectives and involvement with the Pecos repatriation. It is our hope that this podcast series provides insight into how the Pecos repatriation transpired through its completion and how we can all work together as people to remember and respect the past so the future can have the resources and knowledge to continue to remain strong. As traditional practice, this podcast opened with a prayer and will now close with a prayer so our Pecos People and all of their belongings may rest in peace and continue to provide us guidance and strength. (speaks in Towa).

In 1999 the Pueblo of Jemez returned their ancestors and objects to their final resting place in what is now Pecos National Historical Park. The final journey included repatriation ceremonies at Peabody Institute of Archaeology and Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, a two day, non-stop ride in a semi-truck, and the community retracing the 106 mile journey of their ancestors from Pecos Pueblo to the Pueblo of Jemez on foot. It was a journey of mourning, but also peace and hope for the future.

Tags: pecos national historical park, archaeology, native american, history, culture, new mexico, nagpra, pueblo people, pueblo of jemez, museums, repatriation, alfred kidder