Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: Plundered Skulls and Stolen Spirits
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: http://www.chipcolwell.com/
CITY: Denver
STATE: CO
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY:
http://www.dmns.org/science/museum-scientists/chip-colwell/ *
RESEARCHER NOTES:
LC control no.: n 2005062688
LCCN Permalink: https://lccn.loc.gov/n2005062688
HEADING: Colwell, Chip (John Stephen), 1975-
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100 1_ |a Colwell, Chip |q (John Stephen), |d 1975-
370 __ |e Denver (Colo.) |2 naf
372 __ |a Anthropologists |2 lcsh
373 __ |a Denver Museum of Nature and Science |2 naf
374 __ |a Museum curators |2 lcsh
375 __ |a male
377 __ |a eng
400 1_ |w nne |a Colwell-Chanthaphonh, Chip |q (John Stephen), |d 1975-
400 1_ |a Chanthaphonh, Chip Colwell- |q (John Stephen), |d 1975-
670 __ |a Archaeological ethics, c2006: |b CIP t.p. (Chip Colwell-Chanthaphonh) data view (b. Sep. 17, 1975)
670 __ |a History is in the land, c2006: |b eCIP t.p. (Chip Colwell-Chanthaphonh) CIP change request (author wishes to use the following hdg.: Colwell-Chanthaphonh, Chip (John Stephen), 1975- )
670 __ |a The life and death of the secret, 2015: |b p. S183 (Chip Colwell; Curator of Anthropology, Dept. of Anthropology, Denver Museum of Nature and Science)
670 __ |a Denver Museum of Nature and Science website, Feb. 19, 2016 |b (Chip Colwell; CV states that name changed from Chip Colwell-Chanthaphonh in August 2014)
953 __ |a lk19 |b sf03
PERSONAL
Name changed from Chip Colwell-Chanthaphonh, 2014.
EDUCATION:University of Arizona, B.A., 1996; Indiana University, M.A., 2001, Ph.D., 2004.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Museum curator, educator, Center for Desert Archaeology, Tucson, AZ, dissertation fellow, 2001-05; American Academy of Arts and Sciences, visiting scholar, 2005-06; Anthropological Research, LLC, Tucson, AZ, project director, 2006-07; Denver Museum of Nature and Science, Denver, CO, curator of anthropology, 2007-15, senior curator of anthropology, 2016—. University of Denver, adjunct professor, 2009-10; University of Colorado at Denver, lecturer, 2015—. Member of editorial boards, American Anthropologist, American Antiquity, Museum Worlds, and International Journal of Cultural Property.
MEMBER:Society for American Archaeology.
AWARDS:Thomas Bogard Bequest Scholarship, University of Arizona, 1996; predissertation grant, Indiana University Center for Latin American Studies, 1999; David Bidney Graduate Paper Award, Indiana University, University of Wisconsin Center for Women’s Studies Research Paper Award, and U.S. Department of Education Foreign Language Area Study Scholarship, all 2001; Presidential Recognition Award, Society for American Archaeology, and Indiana University College Alumni Fund Travel Award, both 2004; National Endowment for the Humanities Special Projects Planning Grant and Southwestern Foundation for Education and Historical Preservation Project Grant, both shared with T.J. Ferguson, both 2005; Charles Redd Center for Western Studies Publication Grant, 2006, for Massacre at Camp Grant: Forgetting and Remembering Apache History; National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Stipend, 2007, for Inheriting the Past: Arthur C. Parker and the Making of Archaeology’s Moral Community; Arizona Book Award in Political/History Category, 2008, and Gordon R. Willey Prize, American Anthropological Association, and National Council on Public History Book Award, both 2009, all for for Massacre at Camp Grant; National Park Service grants, 2008-2010, 2012, 2015; Wenner-Gren Foundation Research Grant and American Museum of Natural History Collection Study Grant, both 2010; J. William Fulbright Program fellowship, 2012; National Endowment for the Humanities fellowship, 2013; Mountains-Plains Museums Association Leadership and Innovation Award, 2014.
WRITINGS
Contributor to books, including Remix: Changing Conversations in Museums of the Americas and Archaeology for the People, and journals, including International Journal of Historical Archaeology, Museum Worlds, and Advances in Archaeological Practice. Museum Anthropology, coeditor, 2009-12; Sapiens online magazine, founding editor in chief, 2016—.
SIDELIGHTS
Chip Colwell, the senior curator of anthropology at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, is particularly interested in Native American ethnology and archaeology, heritage management, collaborative methods, social and political uses of history, repatriation, cultural landscapes, and research ethics. His book Plundered Skulls and Stolen Spirits: Inside the Fight to Reclaim Native America’s Culture deals extensively with efforts to return the remains and artifacts of Native Americans from museums to their tribes. He has much experience in this area, having led the repatriation program at his museum. “The modern repatriation movement has transformed the museum world,” he told Kristina Killgrove in an interview for Forbes magazine’s online edition. “Before the 1990s, few museums collaborated directly with Native peoples. Then, because of the demands for the return of ancestral human remains and funerary and sacred objects, museum administrators began to meet and interact with Native Americans. Although some of these conversations were difficult, many of them led to the discovery of common interests. And so ironically, this very divisive issue has brought two groups closer together than ever before. For me personally, repatriation work is meaningful.” Repatriation “is grounded in questions of justice and human rights,” he continued, as it “is a kind of human right” for Native religious leaders to have the objects they need for religious ceremonies and to honor their ancestors. The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990 recognized this right.
Plundered Skulls and Stolen Spirits explores many issues surrounding repatriation. Numerous conflicts have arisen between museums and tribal leaders, as museums often cite the need to have human remains and other artifacts for study. Conflicts also occur between tribes about which one has the right to claim an object. Colwell addresses these issues as they relate to four repatriation efforts, with a section of the book dedicated to each: the return of Zuni sculptures that are considered living gods, the repatriation of body parts from Cheyenne and Arapaho individuals who were killed by the U.S. Army at the Sandy Creek massacre in Colorado in 1864, a ceremonial Tlingit robe, and bones of the Calusa people. He discusses what museum personnel and Native activists have learned from each other while sorting out the competing claims to these objects.
Some critics considered Colwell’s book insightful and valuable. A Publishers Weekly reviewer termed it a “moving and thoughtful work” that “raises provocative questions about who owns the past.” Spectator contributor Tiffany Jenkins, however, found fault with Colwell’s “naive assertions as to the benefits of collaboration between museums and indigenous groups.” She explained: “If you empty the shelves and destroy the research material, it is not possible to investigate the past or collaborate.” She also deemed repatriation “troubling because it resurrects racial ways of thinking about people” and thought Colwell sometimes appears “to buy into the myth of the ‘Noble Indian’” even as he pokes fun at himself for doing so. Jenkins allowed, though, that Colwell displays his intimate knowledge of the repatriation process. “His is indeed an insider’s account—just not from the sidelines,” she wrote. “He too has been on the battlefield.” In New Scientist, Bob Holmes noted that “Colwell’s account favours the Native American perspective—a sensible approach for a book aimed at scientifically literate readers who may lean the other way. Readers will come away with a deeper appreciation of Native American cultural imperatives and the complexity of the situation.” Colwell tells his tale “ably and sensitively,” Holmes added. John R. Burch, writing in Library Journal, rated Plundered Skulls and Stolen Spirits “highly recommended for readers interested in Native American studies or museums.” The Publishers Weekly critic summed it up as “surely an important work.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Library Journal, January 1, 2017, John R. Burch, review of Plundered Skulls and Stolen Spirits: Inside the Fight To Reclaim Native America’s Culture, p. 108.
New Scientist, April 22, 2017, Bob Holmes, “Native Justice.”
Publishers Weekly, January 9, 2017, review of Plundered Skulls and Stolen Spirits, p. 58.
Spectator, April 15, 2017, Tiffany Jenkins, “Bones of Contention,” p. 35.
ONLINE
Chip Colwell Website, http://www.chipcolwell.com (October 25, 2017).
Denver Museum of Nature and Science Website, http://www.dmns.org/ (October 25, 2017), brief biography.
Forbes Website, https://www.forbes.com/ (March 17, 2017), Kristina Killgrove, “How One Anthropologist Balances Human Skeletons and Human Rights.”
Simon Fraser University Website, https://www.sfu.ca/ (October 25, 2017), brief biography.*
Chip Colwell is Senior Curator of Anthropology at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. He received his PhD from Indiana University, and has held fellowships with the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and J. William Fulbright Program.
He has served on the editorial boards of the American Anthropologist, American Antiquity, Museum Worlds, and the International Journal of Cultural Property. He was co-editor of Museum Anthropology from 2009-2012 and was elected to the Society for American Archaeology board of directors for 2015-2017. Numerous grants have supported his research, including from the Wenner-Gren Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
He has published more than 50 academic articles and book chapters, and 10 books. His work has been highlighted in such venues as The New York Times, Archaeology Magazine, The Denver Post, C-SPAN, and TEDx. He is the recipient of numerous honors, including the Gordon R. Willey Prize of the American Anthropological Association, Mountain-Plains Museums Association Leadership and Innovation Award, and National Council on Public History Book Award.
In January 2016, as the founding editor-in-chief, he launched SAPIENS, an online magazine about anthropological thinking and discoveries.
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Dr. Chip Colwell is Senior Curator of Anthropology at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. He has held fellowships with the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, National Endowment for the Humanities, and US Fulbright Program. He has published more than 50 scholarly articles and chapters, and 9 books. His work has been highlighted in such venues as The New York Times, The Denver Post, Archaeology Magazine, and garnered numerous awards, including the National Council on Public History Book Award. He is the founding editor-in-chief of SAPIENS, an online magazine dedicated to anthropology for the public. Follow him on Twitter @drchipcolwell.
POSITIONSenior Curator of AnthropologyEXPERTISENative American culture and historyPhDIndiana UniversityPHONE NUMBER303.370.6378EMAILchip.colwell@dmns.orgRESUMEClick to DownloadHIGHLIGHTS1
Plundered Skulls and Stolen Spirits: Inside the Fight to Reclaim Native America's Culture (2017)
2
What if Nature, Like Corporations, Had the Rights of a Person? The Guardian (2016)
3
Destroying Heritage: How the Dakota Access Pipeline Plans Went All Wrong Salon (2016)
4
How Should the Ancient One’s Story End? Denver Post (2016)
5
Speaking Out Against Blood Antiquities. Science (2016)
CURRENT PROJECTS
SAPIENS
STUFFOLOGY
NAGPRA
umbraco.MacroEngines.DynamicXml
In January 2016, as the founding editor-in-chief, Dr. Colwell launched the new online magazine SAPIENS with a mission to bring anthropology—the study of being human—to the public, to make a difference in how people see themselves and the people around them. Funded by the Wenner-Gren Foundation, our objective is to deepen your understanding of the human experience by exploring exciting, novel, thought-provoking, and unconventional ideas. Through news coverage, features, commentaries, reviews, photo essays, and much more, we work closely with anthropologists and journalists to craft intriguing and innovative ways of sharing the discipline with a worldwide audience. To expand our reach, we syndicate articles on ScientificAmerican.com, DiscoverMagazine.com, Slate, and elsewhere.
SAPIENS aims to transform how the public understands anthropology. Every piece of content is editorially-independent and grounded in anthropological research, theories, or thinking. We present stories and perspectives that are authoritative, accessible, and relevant—but still lively and entertaining.
Visit SAPIENS, where we regularly deliver fresh, delightful insights into everything human.
CONTACT US
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CHIP COLWELL1
Denver Museum of Nature & Science
Department of Anthropology | 2001 Colorado Boulevard | Denver, CO | 80205
t. 303.370.6378 | f. 303.370.6313 | e. chip.colwell@dmns.org
EDUCATION
2004 Indiana University, PhD, Anthropology
2001 Indiana University, MA, Anthropology
1996 University of Arizona, BA, Anthropology
POSITIONS
Pres.-2016 Senior Curator of Anthropology, Denver Museum of Nature & Science
2015-2007 Curator of Anthropology, Denver Museum of Nature & Science
Pres.-2015 Lecturer, University of Colorado at Denver
2010-2009 Adjunct Professor, University of Denver
2007-2006 Project Director, Anthropological Research, LLC
2006-2005 Visiting Scholar, American Academy of Arts & Sciences
2005-2001 Dissertation Fellow, Center for Desert Archaeology
BOOKS
2010 Living Histories: Native Americans and Southwestern Archaeology. AltaMira Press.
2010 Crossroads of Culture: Anthropology Collections at the Denver Museum of Nature &
Science (with S.E. Nash and S.H. Holen). University Press of Colorado.
2009 Inheriting the Past: The Making of Arthur C. Parker and Indigenous Archaeology.
University of Arizona Press.
2008 Ethics in Action: Case Studies in Archaeological Dilemmas (with J. Hollowell and D.
McGill). The SAA Press.
2007 Massacre at Camp Grant: Forgetting and Remembering Apache History. University of
Arizona Press.
2006 History is in the Land: Multivocal Tribal Traditions in Arizona’s San Pedro Valley (with
T. J. Ferguson). University of Arizona Press.
EDITED BOOKS
2014 An Anthropologist’s Arrival: A Memoir (with R.M. Underhill and S.E. Nash). University
of Arizona Press.
1 Name changed from Chip Colwell-Chanthaphonh, August 2014.
COLWELL
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2008 Collaboration in Archaeological Practice: Engaging Descendant Communities (with
T. J. Ferguson). AltaMira Press.
2006 Archaeological Ethics (with K. D. Vitelli). 2nd ed. AltaMira Press.
ARTICLES AND BOOK CHAPTERS
2016 Collaborative Archaeologies and Descendant Communities. Annual Review of
Anthropology 45:113-127.
2016 Laguna Sheepherding (with M.P. Hopkins and T. J. Ferguson). Kiva 82(3):278-322.
2016 Reimaging an Ethical Approach to Museum Collections (with S. E. Nash). In Remix:
Changing Conversations in Museums of the Americas, Selma Holo and Mari-Tere
Álvarez, eds. Pp. 76-80. Berkeley: University of California Press.
2015 Curating Secrets: Repatriation, Knowledge Flows, and Museum Power Structures.
Current Anthropology 56(S12):263-275.
2015 On Secrecy, Disclosure, the Public, and the Private in Anthropology (with L. Manderson
et al.). Current Anthropology 56(S12):183-190.
2015 Communities and Ethics in Heritage Debates (with C. Joy). In Global Heritage: A
Reader. Lynn Meskell, ed. Pp. 112-130. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.
2015 Origins: The Elusive Search for the First Americans. In Archaeology for the People,
edited by John Cherry and Felipe Rojas. Joukowsky Institute Publications 7. Brown
University, Providence, RI.
2014 The Snow Capped Mountain and the Uranium Mine: Zuni Heritage and the LandscapeScale
in Cultural Resource Management (with T. J. Ferguson). Advances in
Archaeological Practice 2(4):234-251.
2014 The Sacred and the Museum: Repatriation and the Trajectories of Inalienable
Possessions. Museum Worlds 2(1):10-24.
2014 Saints and Evil and the Wayside Shrines of Mauritius (with M. de Salle-Essoo). Journal
of Material Culture 19(3):253-277.
2014 The Search for Makak: A Multidisciplinary Settlement History of the Northern Coast of
Le Morne Brabant, Mauritius (with S. Le Chartier and S. Jacquin-Ng). International
Journal of Historical Archaeology 18(3):375-414.
2013 Anthropology: Unearthing the Human Experience (with S.E. Nash, S.R. Holen, and M.N.
Levine). Denver Museum of Nature & Science Annals 4:283-335.
2013 “A Museum Here Founded”: A Summative History (with K.A. Haglund, R.K. Stucky,
and P. Wineman). Denver Museum of Nature & Science Annals 4:11-63.
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2012 Repatriation and Constructs of Identity (with J. Powell). Journal of Anthropological
Research 68(2):191-222.
2012 The Work of Repatriation in Indian Country. Human Organization 71(3):278-291.
2012 Archaeology and Indigenous Collaboration. In Archaeological Theory Today, edited by
Ian Hodder, pp. 267-291. Polity Press, Cambridge.
2011 Sketching Knowledge: Quandaries in the Mimetic Reproduction of Pueblo Ritual.
American Ethnologist 38(3):451-467.
2011 The Disappeared: Power over the Dead in the Aftermath of 9/11. Anthropology Today
27(3):5-11.
2011 The Repatriation of Culturally Unidentifiable Human Remains (with R. Maxson and J.
Powell). Museum Management and Curatorship 26(1):27-43.
2011 The Past Is Now: Hopi Connections to Ancient Times and Places (with S.B.
Koyiyumptewa). In Movement, Connectivity, and Landscape Change in the Ancient
Southwest (Proceedings of the Southwest Symposium), edited by Margaret C. Nelson and
Colleen Strawhacker, pp. 443-455. University Press of Colorado.
2011 Translating Time: A Dialogue on Hopi Experiences of the Past (with S.B.
Koyiyumptewa). In Born in the Blood: On Native American Translation, edited by Brian
Swann, pp. 61-83. University of Nebraska Press.
2011 Multivocality in Multimedia: Collaborative Archaeology and the Potential of Cyberspace
(with T. J. Ferguson and D. Gann). In New Perspectives in Global Public Archaeology,
edited by Katsuyuki Okamura and Akira Matsuda, pp. 239-249. Springer.
2011 Lost in Translation: Rethinking Hopi Katsina Tithu and Museum Language Systems
(with R. Maxson and L. W. Lomayestewa). Denver Museum of Nature & Science Annals
2:1-137.
2011 Civic Engagements in Museum Anthropology: A Prolegomenon for the Denver Museum
of Nature & Science (with S. Nash and S. Holen). Historical Archaeology 45(1):135-151.
2010 The Premise and Promise of Indigenous Archaeology (with T. J. Ferguson, D. Lippert, R.
H. McGuire, G. P. Nicholas, J. E. Watkins and L. J. Zimmerman). American Antiquity
75(2):228-238.
2010 Intersecting Magisteria: Bridging Archaeological Science and Traditional Knowledge
(with T. J. Ferguson). Journal of Social Archaeology 10(3):325-346.
2010 The Problem of Collaboration? Reflections on Engagements of Inclusivity, Reciprocity,
and Democracy in Museum Anthropology. Western Humanities Review 64(3):49-63.
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2009 Myth of the Anasazi: Archaeological Language, Collaborative Communities, and the
Contested Past. Public Archaeology 8(2-3):191-207.
2009 Reconciling American Archaeology and Native America. Daedalus 138(2):94-104.
2009 The Archaeologist as a World Citizen: On the Morals of Heritage Preservation and
Destruction. In Cosmopolitan Archaeologies, edited by Lynn Meskell, pp. 140-165. Duke
University Press.
2009 Archaeology on the Periphery: Locating “A Last Great Place.” In Archaeologies and
Ethnographies, edited by Lena Mortensen and Julie Hollowell, pp. 240-259. University
Press of Florida.
2008 Artist Unknown: The Significance of Signatures on Pueblo Pottery. In A River Apart: The
Pottery of Cochiti and Santo Domingo Pueblos, edited by Valerie K. Verzuh, pp. 17-31.
Museum of New Mexico Press.
2008 Always Multivocal and Multivalent: Conceptualizing Archaeological Landscapes in
Arizona’s San Pedro Valley (with T. J. Ferguson and R. Anyon). In Archaeologies of
Placemaking: Monuments, Memories, and Engagements in Native North America, edited
by Patricia E. Rubertone, pp. 59-80. Left Coast Press.
2007 History, Justice, and Reconciliation. In Archaeology as a Tool of Civic Engagement,
edited by Barbara J. Little and Paul A. Shackel, pp. 23-46. AltaMira Press.
2006 Memory Pieces and Footprints: Multivocality and the Meanings of Ancient Times and
Ancestral Places among the Zuni and Hopi (with T. J. Ferguson). American
Anthropologist 108(1):148-162.
2006 Dreams at the Edge of the World and Other Evocations of O’odham History.
Archaeologies 2(1):20-44.
2006 Trust and Archaeological Practice: Towards a Framework of Virtue Ethics (with T. J.
Ferguson). In The Ethics of Archaeology: Philosophical Perspectives on Archaeological
Practice, edited by Chris Scarre and Geoffrey Scarre, pp. 115-130. Cambridge University
Press.
2005 The Incorporation of the Native American Past: Cultural Extermination, Archaeological
Protection, and the Antiquities Act of 1906. International Journal of Cultural Property
12(3):375-391.
2005 Portraits of a Storied Land: An Experiment in Writing the Landscapes of History.
Anthropological Quarterly 78(1):151-177.
2005 When History is Myth: Genocide and the Transmogrification of American Indians.
American Indian Culture and Research Journal 29(2):113-118.
COLWELL
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2005 Retracing the Battle of Cibecue: Western Apache, Documentary, and Archaeological
Interpretations (with J. Welch and M. Altaha). Kiva 71(2):133-163.
2005 Footprints of the Hisatsinom: Hopi Interpretations of Ancient Images in the San Pedro
Valley of Southern Arizona. In Making Marks: Graduate Studies in Rock Art Research in
the New Millennium, edited by Jennifer K.K. Huang and Elisabeth V. Culley, pp. 221-
228. Occasional Paper No. 5. American Rock Art Research Association.
2004 Virtue Ethics and the Practice of History: Native Americans and Archaeologists along the
San Pedro Valley of Arizona (with T. J. Ferguson). Journal of Social Archaeology 4(1):5-
27.
2004 Mapping History: Cartography and the Construction of the San Pedro Valley (with J. B.
Hill). History and Anthropology 15(2):175-200.
2004 Those Obscure Objects of Desire: Collecting Cultures and the Archaeological Landscape
in the San Pedro Valley of Arizona. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography
33(5):571-601.
2004 Remembrance of Things and Things Past: Museums as Memorials and Encounters with
Native American History. Museum Anthropology 27(1):37-48.
2003 Signs in Place: Native American Perspectives of the Past in the San Pedro Valley of
Southeastern Arizona. Kiva 69(1):5-29.
2003 The Camp Grant Massacre in the Historical Imagination. Journal of the Southwest
45(3):349-369.
2003 Western Apache Oral Histories and Traditions of the Camp Grant Massacre. American
Indian Quarterly 27(3&4):639-666.
2003 Dismembering / Disremembering the Buddhas: Renderings on the Internet during the
Afghan Purge of the Past. Journal of Social Archaeology 3(1):75-98.
2001 War and Cultural Property: The 1954 Hague Convention and the Status of U.S.
Ratification (with J. Piper). International Journal of Cultural Property 10(2):217-245.
REVIEWS, COMMENTS, ENTRIES
2015 Repatriating Human Remains in the Absence of Informed Consent (with S. Nash). The
SAA Archaeological Record 15(1):14-16.
2013 Repatriation and the Burdens of Proof. Museum Anthropology 36(2):108-109.
2012 Review of “From Cochise to Geronimo: The Chiricahua Apache, 1874-1886” by E. R.
Sweeny. American History Review 117(1):206-207.
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2012 Archaeological Ethics (with D. McGill and J. Hollowell). In Encyclopedia of Applied
Ethics, edited by Ruth Chadwick, 179–188. Volume 1. Academic Press, San Diego, CA.
2011 On Archaeology and Being Human. Archaeological Review from Cambridge 26(2):191-
194.
2011 Review of “Indigenous Archaeologies: A Reader on Decolonization” edited by M. M.
Bruchac et al. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 21(3):476-477.
2011 Review of “Big Sycamore Stands Alone: The Western Apaches, Aravaipa, and the
Struggle for Place,” by I. W. Record. Journal of American Ethnic History 30(2):83-84.
2011 Review of “Whose Culture?” edited by J. Cuno. Cambridge Archaeological Journal
21(1):139-141.
2011 Ethics and the 9/11 Museum Complex. Anthropology Today 27(4):28-29.
2010 Fascination and Terror. Current Anthropology 51(3):445-446.
2010 Review of “The Pueblo Revolt and the Mythology of Conquest: An Indigenous
Archaeology of Contact,” by M. V. Wilcox. American Anthropologist 112(4):689-690.
2010 Review of “Kennewick Man: Perspectives on the Ancient One,” edited by H. Burke et al.
Cambridge Archaeological Journal 20(2):267-268.
2010 Archaeology and the Problem of the Public. American Anthropologist 112(1):144-145.
2010 Review of “Mediating Knowledges: Origins of a Zuni Tribal Museum,” by G. Issac.
Wicazo Sa Review 25(1):93-95.
2010 Review of “Captive Arizona: 1851-1900,” by V. Smith. Pacific Historical Review
79(4):645-646.
2009 A History of Violence, the Violence of History. Kiva 75(1):119-124.
2009 Museum Anthropology as Applied Anthropology. Anthropology News 50(1):23.
2008 Review of “Matilda Coxe Stevenson: Pioneering Anthropologist,” by D. A. Miller.
American Indian Culture and Research Journal 32(2):140-143.
2008 Comment on “History and Its Discontents: Stone Statues, Native Histories, and
Archaeologists.” Current Anthropology 49(3):455-456.
2008 Review of “Reserve Memories: The Power of the Past in a Chilcotin Community,” by
D. W. Dinwoodie. Indigenous Nations Journal 6(1):204-206.
COLWELL
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2008 Eskiminzin; Sacred Sites. In Treaties with American Indians: An Encyclopedia of Rights,
Conflicts, and Sovereignty, edited by Donald L. Fixico, pp. 805-806, 946-947. ABCCLIO
Press, Santa Barbara.
2007 Review of “Cross-Cultural Collaboration: Native Peoples and Archaeology in the
Northeastern United States,” edited by J. E. Kerber. American Indian Culture and
Research Journal 31(2):124-126.
2007 Camp Grant Massacre; Eskiminzin. In Encyclopedia of American Indian History, edited
by Bruce E. Johansen and Barry M. Pritzker, pp. 270-271, 728-729. ABC-CLIO Press,
Santa Barbara.
2006 Self-governance, Self-representation, Self-determination and the Questions of Research
Ethics. Science and Engineering Ethics 12(3):508-510.
2006 Commentaries. In Research Ethics: Cases and Commentaries, Volume 7, edited by Brian
Schrag, pp. 101-102, 147-148, 159-161. Association for Practical and Professional
Ethics.
2006 Rethinking Abandonment in Archaeological Contexts (with T. J. Ferguson). SAA
Archaeological Record 6(1):37-41.
2004 Review of “Ethical Issues in Archaeology,” edited by L. J. Zimmerman et al. Indigenous
Nations Studies Journal 5(1):86-87.
2001 Review of “Frauds, Myths, and Mysteries: Science and Pseudoscience in Archaeology,”
by K. L. Feder. Florida Anthropologist 54(2):96-97.
PUBLIC WRITING
2016 How the Archaeological Review of the Dakota Access Pipeline Went Wrong. The
Conversation (republished in Salon, High Country News, and more).
2016 What If Nature, Like Corporations, Had the Rights and Protections of a Person? The
Conversation (republished in The Guardian, New Republic, TIME, and more).
2016 How Should the Ancient One’s Story End? Denver Post May 15: 2D.
2016 Speaking Out Against Blood Antiquities. Science 352(6291):1285.
2015 The Dangers of Kennewick Man’s DNA. Huffington Post.
2015 Rest for the King, No Rest for Native Americans. Huffington Post.
2015 Why Does Heritage Become Hostage? Huffington Post.
2014 Forgetting the 9/11 Victims. Huffington Post.
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2013 A Promise Unfulfilled on Thanksgiving (op-ed). Denver Post November 24: D1.
2013 A Journey to Mauritius. Catalyst 16:6-7.
2013 Archaeological Preservation and Native Traditions. Archaeology Southwest Magazine
26(1):28.
2013 Vigango: On the Trail of Mijikenda Memorial Statues (with S.E. Nash). Swara AprilJune:
55-58.
2012 Laying Unidentified Remains to Rest. New York Times.
2011 No, It’s Not Cool to Deface Native Rock Art (op-ed). Denver Post March 15: 17A.
2010 Opening America’s Skeleton Closets (op-ed). Denver Post March 9: 4D.
SELECTED GRANTS
2013 National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship, “Opening the Skeleton Closet:
Museums, Native America, and the Repatriation Debate”
2012 William J. Fulbright Scholar Program, University of Mauritius, Faculty of Social
Science
2010 Wenner-Gren Foundation Research Grant, “Repatriation and Reconciliation: The Ethical
Effects of NAGPRA”
2010 American Museum of Natural History Collection Study Grant, “Picturing Indians in the
American West: The Photography of Jesse H. Bratley and His Contemporaries”
2008-2010, 2012, 2015 National Park Service, “NAGPRA Consultations” (5 grants; $315,000)
2007 National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Stipend, for “Inheriting the Past: Arthur
C. Parker and the Making of Archaeology’s Moral Community”
2006 Charles Redd Center for Western Studies Publication Grant, for Massacre at Camp
Grant: Forgetting and Remembering Apache History
2005 National Endowment for the Humanities Special Projects Planning Grant, for “The San
Pedro Ethnohistory Internet Project” (with T. J. Ferguson)
2005 Southwestern Foundation for Education and Historical Preservation Project
Grant, for “The San Pedro Ethnohistory Internet Project” (with T. J. Ferguson)
2004 Indiana University College Alumni Fund Travel Award, for dissertation research
2003 Arizona Archaeological and Historical Society Student Scholarship Grant, for travel
COLWELL
9
2002 IU Graduate Student Organization Research Grant, for dissertation research
2001 United States Department of Education Foreign Language Area Study Scholarship, for
the intensive study of Lao at the University of Wisconsin at Madison
2000 Indiana University David C. Skomp Summer Initiative Grant, for dissertation research
1999 Indiana University Center for Latin American Studies Pre-dissertation Grant, for predissertation
research
SELECTED HONORS
2015 Colorado Book Award—Finalist, in the Creative Non-Fiction Category, for An
Anthropologist’s Arrival: A Memoir
2014 Leadership and Innovation Award, Mountain-Plains Museums Association, for the
DMNS Department of Anthropology Native American Sciences Initiative
2013 PRAXIS Award for Excellence in Practicing Anthropology—Honorable Mention,
Washington Association of Practicing Anthropologists, for DMNS Department of
Anthropology Repatriation Initiative
2011 New Mexico Book Award—Finalist, in both the Anthropology and Multi-Cultural
Categories, for Living Histories: Native Americans and Southwestern Archaeology
2009 Gordon R. Willey Prize, American Anthropological Association, Archaeology Division,
best archaeology paper published in the American Anthropologist within last three years,
for “Memory Pieces and Footprints: Multivocality and the Meanings of Ancient Times
and Ancestral Places among the Zuni and Hopi” (with T. J. Ferguson)
2009 National Council on Public History Book Award, best book about or growing out of
public history published within past two years, for Massacre at Camp Grant: Forgetting
and Remembering Apache History
2008 Arizona Book Award winner in the Political/History Category, for Massacre at Camp
Grant: Forgetting and Remembering Apache History
2007 Victor Turner Prize for Ethnographic Writing—Honorable Mention, Society for
Humanistic Anthropology, American Anthropological Association, for History is in the
Land: Multivocal Tribal Traditions in Arizona’s San Pedro Valley (with T. J. Ferguson)
2004 Society for American Archaeology Presidential Recognition Award, recognition for
individuals who have provided extraordinary services to the society and the profession in
the past year, for establishing and co-organizing the annual SAA Ethics Bowl
COLWELL
10
2003 Arizona Archaeological and Historical Society Julian D. Hayden Paper Award, student
competition, for “Signs in Place: Native American Perspectives of the Past in the San
Pedro Valley of Southeastern Arizona”
2001 University of Wisconsin Center for Women’s Studies Research Paper Award, graduate
writing competition, for “Publishing the Past: Gender and Patterns of Authorship in
Academic and Public Archaeology Journals”
2001 Indiana University David Bidney Graduate Paper Award, prize for the best paper by a
graduate student during the academic year, for “Dismembering / Disremembering the
Buddhas: Renderings on the Internet during the Afghan Purge of the Past”
1996 Thomas Bogard Bequest Scholarship, University of Arizona, funding for the education of
outstanding anthropology majors
INVITED LECTURES
2016 Brown University, Haffenreffer Museum, Barbara A. and Edward G. Hail Lecture
2016 School for Advanced Research
2015 Korean Association for Archaeological Heritage
2014 National Museum of Ethnology, Japan
2014 Stanford University, Department of Anthropology
2012 University of Mauritius, Department of History and Political Science
2010 University of Cambridge, The Bushnell Lecture
2010 Stanford University, Department of Anthropology
2009 Indian Arts Research Center
2009 Museum of Indian Arts and Culture
2009 Center of Wonder
2008 Metropolitan State College, Department of Sociology and Anthropology
2008 Colorado Archaeological Society
2007 Arizona State University, School of Human Evolution and Social Change
2007 School for Advanced Research
2006 Harvard University, Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology
2006 University of Massachusetts at Boston, Department of Anthropology
2006 American Academy of Arts and Sciences
2005 Columbia University, Department of Anthropology
2005 Poynter Center for the Study of Ethics and American Institutions
JOURNAL EDITORSHIPS AND BOARDS
Pres.-2015 Founding Editor-in-Chief, SAPIENS
Pres.-2015 Editorial Board, American Antiquity
Pres.-2015 Advisory Board, Practicing Anthropology
Pres.-2015 Associate Editor, Journal of Anthropological Research
Pres.-2014 Editorial Board, International Journal of Cultural Property
2015-2011 Editorial Board, Museum Worlds: Advances in Research
2012-2009 Co-Editor, Museum Anthropology
2012-2008 Editorial Board, American Anthropologist
2005-2003 Advisory Board, Graduate Journal of Social Science
COLWELL
11
SCHOLARLY SERVICE
2020-2015 Advisory Council, Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research
2017-2014 Board of Directors (elected), Society for American Archaeology
2016-2013 Committee on Public Policy (elected), American Anthropological Association
2014-2010 Associate Scholar, Intellectual Property Issues in Cultural Heritage Project
2015-2012 Tenure External Review Panel, American Anthropological Association
2012-2010 Fulbright Specialist Roster, Council for International Exchange of Scholars
2012-2008 Native American Scholarships Committee (Chair), Society for American
Archaeology
2011-2008 Board of Directors (elected), Council for Museum Anthropology
2010-2007 Book Award Committee, Society for American Archaeology
2009-2007 Committee on Practicing, Applied, and Public Interest Anthropology; American
Anthropological Association
2007-2004 Committee on Ethics, Society for American Archaeology
Rev. Nov. 2016
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Home » About » People & Partners » Associates » Chip Colwell-Chanthaphonh
Chip Colwell-Chanthaphonh
Chip Colwell-Chanthaphonh
Curator of Anthropology, the Denver Museum of Nature & Science
Chip Colwell-Chanthaphonh is Curator of Anthropology at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. His research interests include: Native American ethnology and archaeology, heritage management, collaborative methods, social and political uses of history, repatriation, cultural landscapes, and research ethics.
Colwell-Chanthaphonh received his PhD from Indiana University and his BA from the University of Arizona. Before coming to the Museum, he held a post-doctoral fellowship with the American Academy of Arts & Sciences in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Colwell-Chanthaphonh sits on the editorial board of American Anthropologist, and currently is co-editor of Museum Anthropology. He has published more than two dozen articles and book chapters, and has authored and edited seven books. Recent awards include the 2009 National Council on Public History Book Award and the 2009 Gordon R. Willey Prize of the American Anthropological Association, Archaeology Division.
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Quoted in Sidelights: “The modern repatriation movement has transformed the museum world,” he told Kristina Killgrove in an interview for Forbes magazine’s online edition. “Before the 1990s, few museums collaborated directly with Native peoples. Then, because of the demands for the return of ancestral human remains and funerary and sacred objects, museum administrators began to meet and interact with Native Americans. Although some of these conversations were difficult, many of them led to the discovery of common interests. And so ironically, this very divisive issue has brought two groups closer together than ever before. For me personally, repatriation work is meaningful.” Repatriation “is grounded in questions of justice and human rights,” he continued, as it “is a kind of human right”
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How One Anthropologist Balances Human Skeletons And Human Rights
Kristina Killgrove , CONTRIBUTOR
Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.
AN INTERVIEW WITH
Chip Colwell, PhD
Senior Curator of Anthropology, Denver Museum of Nature & Science, and Editor-in-Chief of SAPIENS.org
The history of contact between anthropologists and Native Americans is centuries old, and conflicts have ranged from bitter to deadly. Given that the subject matter of many biological anthropologists is the human skeleton, it is not surprising that ethical concerns have arisen over the years about bioarchaeological research in particular. Images of bioarchaeologists as graverobbers, bent on the desecration of places of eternal rest, are not uncommon, and laws concerning the treatment of human skeletons -- particularly Native skeletons -- have only arisen in the past few decades.
One of these laws is NAGPRA, the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, which was signed into law in 1990 by George H.W. Bush. NAGPRA awarded to Native Americans equal protection of property rights already extended to other Americans. In essence, the law required consultation with Native American groups about graves on tribal lands; creation of an inventory of Native American human remains and associated grave goods by all museums and universities; allowance that federally recognized Native groups could request the return of these remains; and a mandate for continued interaction between archaeologists and tribal representatives.
While the need for NAGPRA remains clear, it has not fixed every issue and has in fact raised additional practical and ethical questions. One of the foremost American scholars working on questions of repatriation is Dr. Chip Colwell, Senior Curator of Anthropology at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, whose most recent book, Plundered Skulls and Stolen Spirits, just came out last week. I asked Dr. Colwell a few questions about his work, his take on the recent repatriation of Kennewick Man, and his thoughts on the importance of public outreach in anthropology.
Dr. Chip Colwell at the Denver Museum of Nature & ScienceChip Colwell/DMNS
Dr. Chip Colwell at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science
Killgrove: Tell me about your job at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science -- is this the sort of position you always envisioned yourself in?
Colwell: In 2007, I became the DMNS's curator of anthropology. In this role, I also helped lead the museum's repatriation program. I never really imagined myself as a curator! But I've found it deeply rewarding, as I get to help be a steward of an amazing collection and work towards connecting that collection with a broad range of communities.
Killgrove: A lot of your professional work rests within the topic of repatriation. Could you explain what this means in the sense of museum studies, and why repatriation work interests you personally?
Colwell: The modern repatriation movement has transformed the museum world. Before the 1990s, few museums collaborated directly with Native peoples. Then, because of the demands for the return of ancestral human remains and funerary and sacred objects, museum administrators began to meet and interact with Native Americans. Although some of these conversations were difficult, many of them led to the discovery of common interests. And so ironically, this very divisive issue has brought two groups closer together than ever before. For me personally, repatriation work is meaningful.
Ethically, the work is grounded in questions of justice and human rights. Providing Native religious leaders the sacred objects they need for ceremonies helps ensure a tribe's cultural survival, and allowing them to care for their ancestors is a kind of human right. Intellectually, I find the repatriation debate so fascinating because it lies at the intersection of history and politics, law and morality, science and spirituality. There are compelling arguments on both sides, so the answers are often not black-and-white, but perfectly gray.
Activists participate in a protest against the Dakota Access Pipeline March 10, 2017 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Killgrove: One of the major tensions that runs through American politics regards the legal rights of Native Americans, as we've seen recently with the Dakota Access Pipeline. How does this tension play out in archaeology and museum studies in the US today and in the past?
Colwell: The treatment of Native Americans by the United States legal system is a tortured, tangled history. Repatriation arose largely because Native Americans were not given the same legal rights as other groups in the US. Here's one infamous example: in 1971, a new highway was being built near Glenwood, Iowa, when construction workers ran into an historic cemetery. Archaeologists were called in. Twenty-six of the graves were deemed to hold Anglo settlers; their remains were placed in new caskets and taken to the local Glenwood Cemetery for reburial without study. But archaeologists also found the remains of a woman and her child, which they believed were Native American based on funerary items. They were boxed up and taken to the Office of the State Archaeologist in Iowa City.
Killgrove: Have things changed since the 1970s? For example, have you had to negotiate your role as a museum curator and your advocacy for human rights in the 21st century?
Colwell: On just my third day at DMNS, in July 2007, the collections manager told me about a "really messy" conflict with the Miccosukee regarding a claim for Calusa human remains. The Calusa were an ethnic group that lived in southern Florida when Europeans first arrived. Most archaeologists and scholars feel the Calusa went "extinct" in the wake of the colonial encounter. But the Miccosukee, a federally-recognized tribe in Florida today, claim the Calusa remains as ancestral.
On the one hand, I felt the evidence suggested that the Miccosukee were not culturally affiliated with the Calusa per the provisions of NAGPRA. On the other hand, I didn't feel it was right for the museum to hold these remains -- among several reasons, in 1743, the Spanish documented the great fear and reverence the Calusa held for their dead ancestors, and how the Calusa ensured ancestral remains were not disturbed.
Killgrove: So what did you do?
Colwell: I decided that the law and evidence compelled me to reject the Miccosukee's claim of cultural affiliation. However, there is a provision in federal repatriation law that allows museums to rebury Native remains, even if they're culturally unidentifiable. We pursued this option with the Miccosukee as a partner. And a decade after the Miccosukee's first claim in 2001, we sent the remains home to Florida.
Dr. Colwell's new book is out in print from University of Chicago Press.University of Chicago Press
Dr. Colwell's new book is out in print from University of Chicago Press.
Killgrove: Stories like this are peppered throughout your new book, Plundered Skulls and Stolen Spirits. But I want to ask you about the chapter called "Timeless Limbo" that you devoted to Kennewick Man or the Ancient One. Since the book's publication, this famous skeleton has been repatriated. What has been the reaction to this news?
Colwell: Yes! The Kennewick Man saga ended just as my book was shipping out. The 9,000-year-old remains, found along the bank of the Columbia River near Kennewick, Washington in 1996, were deemed not to be "Native American" under the law, and so not subject to repatriation. In 2014, a 680-page book was published that celebrated the scientific work on the skeleton. But then the next year, a DNA study was published that demonstrated that Kennewick Man was genetically Native American and that a related group, the Colville who were also a claimant tribe in the repatriation case, was located just 200 miles from the grave. Not wanting to take any chances with federal repatriation law, the five claimant tribes worked with the Washington congressional delegation to give Kennewick Man his own law. In December 2016, President Obama signed a law that required the transfer of the remains for reburial.
While I think reburial was an appropriate end -- an end that was a long time in coming -- how it happened was unfortunate in several ways. First, it shows the failure of federal repatriation law when a new law has to be created to take care of just one set of remains. Second, federal repatriation law guides us to determine "cultural affiliation" through 10 lines of evidence. While genetic evidence is one important line of evidence, it's not the only one -- and the clarity of the genetic findings of Kennewick Man might lead some to give undue weight to DNA studies. After all, one's genetic identity is only part of one's social identity -- consider, for example, a Korean orphan who grows up in the U.S. Third, I'm worried that the Kennewick Man case has become our frame for thinking about ancient skeletons -- that is, the idea that Native American and scientific interests are opposed. In fact, there's often more we can learn by working together. Repatriation should be guided by collaboration, not conflict.
Bank of the Columbia River in Kennewick, Washington, where the remains of Kennewick Man were found.Matt McGee/Flickr/CC BY-ND 2.0
Bank of the Columbia River in Kennewick, Washington, where the remains of Kennewick Man were found.
Killgrove: Around the time that Kennewick Man was repatriated, the website Bone Clones, which sells replicas of fossil and modern human skulls, began selling a replica of Kennewick Man's skull. Given your background in repatriation and museum studies, what do you think of this?
Colwell: It's fascinating -- and disturbing. Almost all museums I'm aware of are very careful to consult with tribes about making any casts of human remains or objects that are repatriated. While may tribes do not prefer copies to be made, there are some exceptions. My colleague Gwyneira Isaac has written about some especially interesting examples of these collaborations. One legal concern is that in this case, there's no evidence I can see for consultation. One scientific concern is the website provides misinformation suggesting Kennewick Man was Polynesian or Ainu, which was the hypothesis prior to the 2015 DNA discoveries, rather than affirming his Native American genetic ancestry. Yet another concern is ethical. The website states that "The Bone Clones® cast is a reconstruction by Dr. James Chatters and Bone Clones, Inc., who jointly own the copyright to the product." But is it appropriate for a company and a scientist to hold an exclusive copyright to a product, which is based on a set of human remains that neither the company nor the scientist should have had exclusive access to? Who owns the intellectual property of an ancient skeleton? Who, in the end, owns the past?
Killgrove: Indeed. Your response speaks to the tension between reality and replicas, and between traditional approaches to anthropology and 21st century technologies like 3D scanning and social media. So finally, what are the opportunities in this rapidly changing landscape?
Colwell: I think the positive twist on this question is that 21st century technologies are offering us amazingly powerful tools to better understand the past -- and each other. Many new archaeological technologies, such as ground penetrating radar, can tell us what’s beneath our feet without moving a grain of dirt. New museum technologies, such as X-ray fluorescence, can tell us about the elemental composition of an object without harming the object itself. Similarly, the ubiquity of social media and smart phones allows us to connect in entirely new ways. I’ve recently helped create a new online magazine, SAPIENS, which shares stories of anthropology’s latest discoveries, research, and ideas. Both protecting the past and the building a future together are dependent on dialogue, to establish mutual understanding and respect.
Dr. Colwell is the editor-in-chief of SAPIENS, an online anthropology magazine.Chip Colwell/SAPIENS
Dr. Colwell is the editor-in-chief of SAPIENS, an online anthropology magazine.
---
Kristina Killgrove is a bioarchaeologist at the University of West Florida. For more osteology news, follow her on Twitter (@DrKillgrove) or like her Facebook page Powered by Osteons.
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Quoted in Sidelights: “Spectator contributor Tiffany Jenkins, however, found fault with Colwell’s “naive assertions as to the benefits of collaboration between museums and indigenous groups.” She explained: “If you empty the shelves and destroy the
research material, it is not possible to investigate the past or collaborate.” She also deemed repatriation “troubling because it resurrects racial ways of thinking about people” and thought Colwell sometimes appears “to buy into the myth of the ‘Noble Indian'” even as he pokes fun at himself for doing so. Jenkins allowed, though, that Colwell displays his intimate knowledge of the repatriation process. “His is indeed an
insider’s account –just not from the sidelines,” she wrote. “He too has been on the battlefield.” 9/27/2017 General OneFile - Saved Articles
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Print Marked Items
Bones of contention
Tiffany Jenkins
Spectator.
333.9842 (Apr. 15, 2017): p35.
COPYRIGHT 2017 The Spectator Ltd. (UK)
http://www.spectator.co.uk
Full Text:
Plundered Skulls and Stolen Spirits: Inside the Fight to Reclaim Native America's Culture
by Chip Colwell
University of Chicago Press, 22.50 [pounds sterling], pp. 336
A few years ago, a group of Native American leaders drove 12 hours from Oklahoma to Denver Museum of Nature and
Science, a natural history museum in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, to collect 26 sets of human remains. When
Chip Colwell, the museum's senior curator of anthropology, explained to them that, though the remains were fragments
from people that populated the Great Plains, he didn't know from which tribes, they were shocked: 'The room plunges
into silence,' he recounts, followed by 'heated deliberation'. The visitors were affronted. 'They had come to rebury their
kin--not strangers.'
This is only one of a number of fraught cases in Colwell's lightly written, insider's account of the battle over human
remains and objects in museums. Skirmishes began in the 1970s in North America, rapidly breaking out into a vicious
war of words. On one side were scientists who study human remains; on the other, campaigners who want to repatriate
them to indigenous communities. While repatriation derives from the Latin repatriatus, meaning having been sent home
again, the bones rarely go 'home'. They are hundreds, if not thousands of years old; no one knows where home is.
Instead, they are often reburied by a tribe deemed affiliated on the basis of factors that include group identity,
geography and oral history.
The problem is that human remains are unique evidence, vital for research on evolution, population movement and the
lifestyle of past peoples. But, as they were once human beings, they are also the focus of remembrance, associated with
the sacred, and easily used in political fights, in this case the making of amends for historical wrongs. Nagpra, the
Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, made law in 1990, mandates repatriation as an act of
restitution for the heinous treatment of American Indians by scientists, anthropologists and settlers over centuries.
Colwell's role at Denver Museum was 'to be a paradox': he was both responsible for caring for over 20,000 sets of
remains and objects in the collection and the official in charge of returning them. One part of that paradox, he
embraced:
I feel a fleeting moment of satisfaction. All
the shelves are empty except one ... After
nearly 25 years since Nagpra's passage, nearly
all the museum's human remains are gone.
Where his story jars is in his naive assertions as to the benefits of collaboration between museums and indigenous
groups. 'Every repatriation is not an end but a chance for a new beginning'; 'Repatriation has given American museums
a second life.' This appears disingenuous, for his 'paradox' is no such thing: if you empty the shelves and destroy the
research material, it is not possible to investigate the past or collaborate.
9/27/2017 General OneFile - Saved Articles
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Colwell is probably right that the war is coming to an end. But who has won? Although repatriation is presented as a
triumph for indigenous groups, it is troubling because it resurrects racial ways of thinking about people. The idea of
cultural continuity between the remains, some of which are thousands of years old--one of the most well-known,
Kennewick Man, is, at 8,500 years old, older than the pyramids --and a contemporary group, is highly questionable;
human populations are not bounded entities through time in this way. That a selected group can decide the future of
remains--and the future of research--on the basis of their biology, is disturbing. Identity should not dictate the pursuit or
closing down of knowledge.
Colwell refers self-deprecatingly to his own youthful eagerness to buy into the myth of the 'Noble Indian' but
reproduces something similar. One Native American is described as having 'the bearing of a high priest, full of quiet
dignity'; another has a 'soft voice and a kind air'. No doubt they do, but compare that to his pathologising of collectors,
who have an 'unruly passion' that they exercise to fill a loss from childhood.
As Colwell has himself pointed out, burials of human remains sometimes take place without any member of any tribe.
When there was no one to return remains to, curators from Denver Museum reburied the bones themselves. Perhaps the
softly spoken Native people with quiet dignity are also a useful stage army. For, as this book shows, the fight to reclaim
Native America's culture has been waged, in significant parts, by professionals such as Colwell. His is indeed an
insider's account --just not from the sidelines. He too has been on the battlefield.
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Jenkins, Tiffany. "Bones of contention." Spectator, 15 Apr. 2017, p. 35. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA498477658&it=r&asid=a446c6ba9c086b639155692cb6d0c634.
Accessed 27 Sept. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A498477658
---
Quoted in Sidelights: “highly recommended for readers interested in Native American studies or museums.”
9/27/2017 General OneFile - Saved Articles
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Colwell, Chip. Plundered Skulls and Stolen
Spirits: Inside the Fight To Reclaim Native
America's Culture
John R. Burch
Library Journal.
142.1 (Jan. 1, 2017): p108.
COPYRIGHT 2017 Library Journals, LLC. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution
permitted.
http://www.libraryjournal.com/
Full Text:
Colwell, Chip. Plundered Skulls and Stolen Spirits: Inside the Fight To Reclaim Native America's Culture. Univ. of
Chicago. Mar. 2017.336p. illus. notes. index. ISBN 9780226298993. $30. HIST
During the 1800s, museums and universities amassed collections of cultural artifacts and remains of "exotic peoples,"
including Native Americans and Native Hawaiians. The federal government acknowledged that the remains of some
Native Americans were being violated through the passage of the Antiquities Act of 1906, but the legislation proved
largely symbolic. The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990 (NAGPRA) finally gained
Native peoples the right to have their sacred objects and remains of ancestors returned to them. Since its passage,
NAGPRA has been criticized by some researchers who argue that the law has impaired scientific study by denying
access to research materials. Colwell (senior curator of anthropology, Denver Museum of Nature and Science) has been
caught in the maelstrom caused by NAGPRA as he had to find a way to protect his museum's collection while also
meeting the legal and moral obligations to various Native communities. He demonstrates that the repatriation is not as
simple as weighing freedom of religion vs. intellectual freedom, as there are even conflicts among Native groups over
who is the rightful recipient of items or remains. VERDICT This work is highly recommended for readers interested in
Native American studies or museums.--John R. Burch, Campbellsville Univ. Lib., KY
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Burch, John R. "Colwell, Chip. Plundered Skulls and Stolen Spirits: Inside the Fight To Reclaim Native America's
Culture." Library Journal, 1 Jan. 2017, p. 108. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA476562400&it=r&asid=07422921c6608e310e8462215cdeba1f.
Accessed 27 Sept. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A476562400
---
Quoted in Sidelights: moving and thoughtful work” that “raises provocative questions about who owns the past.” “surely an important work.”
9/27/2017 General OneFile - Saved Articles
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Plundered Skulls and Stolen Spirits: Inside the
Fight to Reclaim Native America's Culture
Publishers Weekly.
264.2 (Jan. 9, 2017): p58.
COPYRIGHT 2017 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
Plundered Skulls and Stolen Spirits: Inside the Fight to Reclaim Native America's Culture
Chip Colwell. Univ. of Chicago, $30 (336p)
ISBN 978-0-226-29899-3
Colwell, senior curator of anthropology at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, explores the fraught project of
repatriating Native American sacred objects in this moving and thoughtful work. Drawing on his personal experiences
navigating the repatriation process, as well as interviews with tribal leaders, Colwell outlines the historical, legal, and
political entanglements surrounding the theft and eventual recovery of sacred items once displayed in American
museums. Each of the book's four sections focuses on artifacts belonging to a different Native people, tracing the
respective repatriation journeys of Zuni sculptures that are also living gods, body parts from Cheyenne and Arapaho
victims of the Sandy Creek massacre, a ceremonial Tlingit robe, and bones of the Calusa, whose extinction remains
debated. With each story, Colwell attends to tensions between museum preservationists and living Native communities,
emphasizing that repatriation is not an act, but a complex, emotional process. Along the way, he skillfully interweaves
discussion of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, which paved the way for coordinated
Native recovery efforts. Colwell's book raises provocative questions about who owns the past, and is surely an
important work for curators--or anyone--interested in America's treatment of its cultural legacy. (Mar.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Plundered Skulls and Stolen Spirits: Inside the Fight to Reclaim Native America's Culture." Publishers Weekly, 9 Jan.
2017, p. 58. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA477339343&it=r&asid=7b4038b5ed4e6ccd811f9c95ab8306f6.
Accessed 27 Sept. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A477339343
Quoted in Sidelights: “Colwell’s account favours the Native American perspective – a sensible approach for a book aimed at scientifically literate readers who may lean the other way. Readers will come away with a deeper appreciation of Native American cultural imperatives and the complexity of the situation.” Colwell tells his tale “ably and sensitively,”
By Bob Holmes
IN 1971, a highway construction crew in the US state of Iowa accidentally dug up a cemetery. The remains of 26 white people were laid back to rest in another cemetery. The remains of two Native Americans were put into a box for archaeologists to study.
9780226298993
For more than a century, Native American remains and artefacts, including sacred objects, were regarded by archaeologists and anthropologists as research material. But that has changed in the past five decades; many objects have been returned to their tribes.
In Plundered Skulls and Stolen Spirits Chip Colwell, an anthropologist and curator at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science in Colorado, ably and sensitively tells the often conflict-ridden story of how and why museums in the US relinquished their hold over this material. Recalling his own involvement, Colwell writes: “My job was to both protect and return the collections I oversaw.”
Consider the carved wooden figures called Ahayu:da, usually translated as “War Gods”. For the Zuni of New Mexico, these are living beings, created to watch over the tribe. To them, keeping the Ahayu:da on a museum shelf is just as inappropriate as keeping their children there.
Repatriations of these objects began in 1978: Colwell describes the Zuni leaders’ emotionally charged visits to the Ahayu:da imprisoned in his museum, and relates the history of the objects’ purchase – or theft – by white dealers and anthropologists. And he follows the Zuni in their years-long struggle to have them returned. (Even in the 2000s, a few were still turning up in dusty corners.) The Ahayu:da now reside in a secure, open-air shrine where they will eventually decay to dust. That’s not easy for a curator to accept.
Colwell uses the Ahayu:da and three other examples of repatriations from the Denver collection to explain the complex legal processes that have changed the way museums approach their collections: a Cheyenne scalp from a 19th-century massacre by the US cavalry; a ceremonial robe, the symbol of clan authority for the Tlingit of the Alaskan coast; and a large collection of human remains that cannot be definitively assigned to any particular tribe.
Behind all these stories is a tension between the rights-based argument for repatriation and the scientific impulse that wants these objects to remain in a museum. Sometimes, as with some Tlingit regalia, the objects were originally sold by clan members faced with a desperate need for cash. On other occasions they were simply appropriated by white conquerors. And sometimes, especially with human remains, the Native American tribes approach repatriation reluctantly, for fear of angering the spirits of the dead.
“The Zuni’s Ahayu:da will eventually decay to dust. That’s not easy for a curator to accept”
Colwell finds himself squarely in the middle of each quandary: a practising anthropologist who works alongside Native Americans every day and is sensitive to their cultural dynamics. Colwell’s account favours the Native American perspective – a sensible approach for a book aimed at scientifically literate readers who may lean the other way. Readers will come away with a deeper appreciation of Native American cultural imperatives and the complexity of the situation.
Still, the book might have been stronger had it looked more deeply at the scientific side of the coin. What do we gain by studying human remains, especially those that cannot be assigned to a particular Native American group? How often are museum artefacts used in research, as opposed to being merely warehoused?
Both sides have benefited from this prolonged tussle over repatriation. The tribes have regained many of their most precious objects. And the museums have gained a much deeper appreciation of Native American culture and perspective – and, in many cases, can still carry out their research, albeit only with tribal permission.
Plundered Skulls and Stolen Spirits: Inside the fight to reclaim Native America’s culture
Chip Colwell
University of Chicago Press
This article appeared in print under the headline “Native justice”
More on these topics: anthropologyarchaeologyUnited States
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Bob Holmes is a consultant for New ScientistMagazine issue 3122, published 22 April 2017
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