Well that escalated quickly.
I went viral for calling out the Denver Art Museum this week...
A few days ago, I was tagged in on this post by my mutual:
I am Tlingit, which sent me down a rabbit hole on the Denver Art Museum.
Alaskan tribes came to Denver to reclaim their cultural heritage. They left empty-handed- SAM TABACHNIK The Denver Post
“It felt like they were trying to hang onto those objects at all costs,” said Father Simeon Johnson, vice chancellor for the Russian Orthodox Diocese of Sitka & Alaska, who accompanied the delegation that day in Denver. “Their attitude was: ‘These are ours. They’re here and they’re going to stay here.’”
Tribal representatives say they’re still trying to reclaim their heritage from the Denver Art Museum, 34 years after the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act came into effect. Museum officials have been intransigent, condescending and insensitive in consultations, they allege.
To this day, a host of prized Tlingit cultural objects remain in the museum’s much-celebrated Indigenous Arts collection, despite three formal repatriation claims and numerous delegation visits to Denver’s premier art museum.
“They are probably the worst museum” we have ever dealt with, said Harold Jacobs, the Tlingit and Haida’s cultural resource specialist, who attended the 2017 meetings in Denver.
John Lukavic, the museum’s curator of Native arts who also attended those meetings, said in an interview that it was surprising and disappointing to hear the tribes’ reaction to their Denver visit. He disputed their characterization of museum officials’ behavior.
The Tlingit representatives never submitted a formal claim under the federal repatriation act for the raven screen, he said. The museum follows the same rubric in all dealings to comply with the law, he added, and even offered to help the tribe complete the necessary paperwork to request repatriation.
“We’re not in the business of just giving away our collections,” Lukavic said. “Nobody is.”
“It’s the federal law”
The Denver Art Museum’s dealings with the Tlingit tribe stand in sharp contrast to other museums with holdings from the same collections.
In 2020, the Burke Museum in Washington state told the federal government that it intended to repatriate seven objects to the southeast Alaskan tribes. Several of these pieces, museum officials noted, are visible in historic photos of Chief Shakes V and his successor. Information from the tribes, meanwhile, indicated that the relics were communally owned by the clan — meaning no one person could decide to dispose or sell them.
Burke Museum officials determined that the seven cultural items have “ongoing historical, traditional or cultural importance central to the Native American group or culture itself.” There is a relationship of shared group identity that can reasonably be traced between the sacred objects and the tribes, the museum noted.
“(The Tlingit) know what they are doing when it comes to taking care of their sacred cultural heritage,” Sven Haakanson Jr., the museum’s curator of North American anthropology, told The Post. “Returning the Tlingit pieces and seeing them used in ceremonies again — what more can we ask for in doing the right thing for the community? They were reawakened in a beautiful way and now are back in their rightful place.”
The Portland Art Museum in 2022 repatriated nine Tlingit objects, including some from Chief Shakes’ collection. Museum officials called the repatriation ceremony a “landmark occasion, too long in the making.”
“Receiving them back, one by one, brings back the spirit of the person who wore them,” Luella Knapp, a member of the Naanya.aayí clan, said in a statement at the time.
Other museums have developed creative ways to return Tlingit cultural property to the tribes while maintaining educational opportunities.
The University of Maine’s Hudson Museum in May will formally repatriate seven objects following requests from the Alaskan tribes. The museum, though, still wanted to showcase one particular item, a Tlingit frog clan helmet. So university engineers created a replica using a 3D printer.
“The end product allows the museum to continue educating learners of all ages about the cultural traditions of the Northwest coast, while allowing the original object to be reintegrated into traditions, ceremonies and cultural practices of the community from which it came,” museum officials wrote on their website.
Why did the museum feel it important to return the Tlingit pieces?
“It’s the federal law,” said Gretchen Faulkner, the Hudson Museum’s director, in an interview.
Lukavic said every item is different and that there’s no precedent provision in NAGPRA — meaning actions by one museum do not compel another institution to take the same action. The Waters collection, he said, included a variety of different objects.
Colwell, the former Denver Museum of Nature and Science curator, told The Post that it’s no secret among the museum community that the Denver Art Museum has not been as proactive in its NAGPRA work as other institutions.
“It’s never quite made sense to me why they struggled so much to seemingly hold effective consultations and complete repatriations,” he said, adding that tribes may not bother with a formal claim if they feel the museum has dismissed their overtures.
Lukavic’s message about not being in the business of giving away collections simply doesn’t jibe with being a 21st-century museum, Colwell said.
“Museums are in the business of returning things,” he said. “It’s this retentionist mentality that led to the predicament we’re in and to NAGPRA itself.”
Sinclair, the museum spokesperson, called Colwell’s comments “both surprising and inaccurate.” She cited the museum annually conducting proactive outreach with tribal nations by sending letters notifying them of various artworks and objects.
“The Denver Art Museum’s Native Arts department has a proven track record of NAGPRA alignment and compliance going back 30 years and has been recognized as a model to follow in the museum community,” she said.
Other Tlingit pieces from the Waters collection remain in prominent museums, including New York’s famed Metropolitan Museum of Art and the British Museum in London. Cultural objects — like a painted Tlingit raven rattle — also have appeared on auction blocks for as high as $50,000.
After decades of inaction on NAGRPA from some of the country’s largest institutions, there has been a recent groundswell of movement.
Increased media attention has played a significant role, including a ProPublica investigation that allows anyone to search collections at their hometown museums and universities for ancestral remains and funerary objects.
The above are a few sections of a much longer, more detailed article about the situation. That’s when I made my video to tell you all how I felt about it. It went viral on TikTok and was reposted all over Instagram.
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Later, another article was sent to me.
“Man throws sculptures, shatters displays inside Denver Art Museum, police say”
In 2018, a man bought a ticket to the Denver Art Museum and destroyed multiple works of art:
- Wolf Headdress Mask
- Raven Rattle Tlingit
- Jaina Style Figurine
- Moche Portrait Bottle
- Chinese Vase with Phoenixes
- Moche Rattle Bowl
- Mayan Fish-Shaped Vessel
- Mayan Vessel with God on Bird
- Chinese Initiator Sculpture
- Beware of Cranes Sculpture
During a news conference on Monday, Heinrich said he doesn't believe the museum could have done anything to prevent what happened, and that the suspect did not display any signs of what was to come when he bought his ticket.
“We will look at the protocols, but I think right now I do not know how we could prevent something like this in the future better,” Heinrich said.
My immediate response is that the answer is blatantly obvious: If the museum had created a copy, or a few copies even, of the irreplaceable cultural items and… say… SENT THEM HOME 20 years ago… this wouldn’t have been such a catastrophe.
The Denver Art Museum has no excuses, and its behavior has been consistently disrespectful.
I don't have anything specific right now to address the folks asking about calls to action. I will defer to tribal leadership on what they would like from the public to show support. Thank you to everyone who has helped me make my point to the D.A.M. 💅
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I got this before seeing the video on TikTok, glad I subbed!
I have brought this to the attention of the Aspen Indigenous Foundation (aspenaif.org)(although they are probably already aware). I am sure that they have plenty of local sponsors that also support Denver Art Museum. Land Back! (Art too!)