1
00:00:01,992 --> 00:00:03,810
A confession:

2
00:00:03,834 --> 00:00:06,807
I am an archaeologist
and a museum curator,

3
00:00:06,831 --> 00:00:09,020
but a paradoxical one.

4
00:00:09,637 --> 00:00:12,268
For my museum, I collect things,

5
00:00:12,292 --> 00:00:15,700
but I also return things
back to where they came from.

6
00:00:16,815 --> 00:00:21,371
I love museums because
they're social and educational,

7
00:00:21,395 --> 00:00:25,125
but I'm most drawn to them
because of the magic of objects:

8
00:00:25,814 --> 00:00:28,292
a one-million-year-old hand axe,

9
00:00:28,316 --> 00:00:31,270
a totem pole, an impressionist painting

10
00:00:31,294 --> 00:00:34,219
all take us beyond our own imaginations.

11
00:00:35,228 --> 00:00:41,658
In museums, we pause to muse,
to gaze upon our human empire of things

12
00:00:41,682 --> 00:00:43,729
in meditation and wonder.

13
00:00:45,315 --> 00:00:47,549
I understand why US museums alone

14
00:00:47,573 --> 00:00:51,938
host more than 850 million
visits each year.

15
00:00:53,390 --> 00:00:57,080
Yet, in recent years, museums
have become a battleground.

16
00:00:57,564 --> 00:01:00,428
Communities around the world
don't want to see their culture

17
00:01:00,452 --> 00:01:04,187
in distant institutions
which they have no control over.

18
00:01:04,783 --> 00:01:06,924
They want to see their cultural treasures

19
00:01:06,948 --> 00:01:10,666
repatriated, returned
to their places of origin.

20
00:01:11,679 --> 00:01:14,465
Greece seeks the return
of the Parthenon Marbles,

21
00:01:14,489 --> 00:01:18,671
a collection of classical sculptures
held by the British Museum.

22
00:01:19,425 --> 00:01:22,210
Egypt demands antiquities from Germany.

23
00:01:23,187 --> 00:01:25,983
New Zealand's Maori want to see returned

24
00:01:26,007 --> 00:01:30,356
ancestral tattooed heads
from museums everywhere.

25
00:01:31,197 --> 00:01:36,085
Yet these claims pale in comparison
to those made by Native Americans.

26
00:01:36,857 --> 00:01:40,770
Already, US museums have returned
more than one million artifacts

27
00:01:40,794 --> 00:01:44,768
and 50,000 sets
of Native American skeletons.

28
00:01:46,891 --> 00:01:50,588
To illustrate what's at stake,
let's start with the War Gods.

29
00:01:51,461 --> 00:01:53,311
This is a wood carving

30
00:01:53,335 --> 00:01:56,726
made by members
of the Zuni tribe in New Mexico.

31
00:01:57,399 --> 00:02:00,598
In the 1880s, anthropologists
began to collect them

32
00:02:00,622 --> 00:02:03,009
as evidence of American Indian religion.

33
00:02:04,040 --> 00:02:07,099
They came to be seen as beautiful,

34
00:02:07,123 --> 00:02:12,096
the precursor to the stark sculptures
of Picasso and Paul Klee,

35
00:02:12,120 --> 00:02:15,643
helping to usher in
the modern art movement.

36
00:02:16,559 --> 00:02:20,806
From one viewpoint, the museum
did exactly as it's supposed to

37
00:02:20,830 --> 00:02:22,250
with the War God.

38
00:02:22,274 --> 00:02:24,693
It helped introduce
a little-known art form

39
00:02:24,717 --> 00:02:26,583
for the world to appreciate.

40
00:02:28,200 --> 00:02:29,717
But from another point of view,

41
00:02:29,741 --> 00:02:34,184
the museum had committed
a terrible crime of cultural violence.

42
00:02:35,589 --> 00:02:39,620
For Zunis, the War God
is not a piece of art,

43
00:02:39,644 --> 00:02:41,613
it is not even a thing.

44
00:02:41,637 --> 00:02:43,136
It is a being.

45
00:02:45,521 --> 00:02:48,197
For Zunis, every year,

46
00:02:48,221 --> 00:02:50,443
priests ritually carve new War Gods,

47
00:02:50,467 --> 00:02:51,959
the Ahayu:da,

48
00:02:51,983 --> 00:02:54,586
breathing life into them
in a long ceremony.

49
00:02:55,408 --> 00:02:57,380
They are placed on sacred shrines

50
00:02:57,404 --> 00:03:00,645
where they live to protect the Zuni people

51
00:03:00,669 --> 00:03:02,983
and keep the universe in balance.

52
00:03:03,856 --> 00:03:06,158
No one can own or sell a War God.

53
00:03:06,182 --> 00:03:08,379
They belong only to the earth.

54
00:03:09,443 --> 00:03:12,610
And so Zunis want them back from museums

55
00:03:12,634 --> 00:03:14,744
so they can go to their shrine homes

56
00:03:16,531 --> 00:03:18,792
to fulfill their spiritual purpose.

57
00:03:20,451 --> 00:03:22,784
What is a curator to do?

58
00:03:23,461 --> 00:03:27,056
I believe that the War Gods
should be returned.

59
00:03:28,694 --> 00:03:30,321
This might be a startling answer.

60
00:03:30,345 --> 00:03:32,924
After all, my conclusion
contradicts the refrain

61
00:03:32,948 --> 00:03:35,495
of the world's most famous archaeologist:

62
00:03:36,174 --> 00:03:37,728
"That belongs in a museum!"

63
00:03:37,752 --> 00:03:40,688
(Laughter)

64
00:03:40,712 --> 00:03:44,736
is what Indiana Jones said,
not just to drive movie plots,

65
00:03:44,760 --> 00:03:49,518
but to drive home the unquestionable good
of museums for society.

66
00:03:51,052 --> 00:03:53,544
I did not come to my view easily.

67
00:03:53,926 --> 00:03:56,377
I grew up in Tucson, Arizona,

68
00:03:56,401 --> 00:03:59,210
and fell in love
with the Sonoran Desert's past.

69
00:04:00,037 --> 00:04:04,018
I was amazed that beneath
the city's bland strip malls

70
00:04:04,042 --> 00:04:07,915
was 12,000 years of history
just waiting to be discovered.

71
00:04:08,983 --> 00:04:12,250
When I was 16 years old,
I started taking archaeology classes

72
00:04:12,274 --> 00:04:14,059
and going out on digs.

73
00:04:14,896 --> 00:04:18,168
A high school teacher of mine
even helped me set up my own laboratory

74
00:04:18,192 --> 00:04:19,769
to study animal bones.

75
00:04:21,061 --> 00:04:22,211
But in college,

76
00:04:23,125 --> 00:04:27,480
I came to learn that my future career
had a dark history.

77
00:04:28,372 --> 00:04:31,103
Starting in the 1860s,

78
00:04:31,127 --> 00:04:35,254
Native American skeletons
became a tool for science,

79
00:04:35,278 --> 00:04:37,136
collected in the thousands

80
00:04:37,160 --> 00:04:41,444
to prove new theories
of social and racial hierarchies.

81
00:04:42,735 --> 00:04:47,243
Native American human remains
were plundered from graves,

82
00:04:47,267 --> 00:04:49,933
even taken fresh from battlefields.

83
00:04:52,370 --> 00:04:54,823
When archaeologists
came across white graves,

84
00:04:54,847 --> 00:04:57,283
the skeleton was often quickly reburied,

85
00:04:57,307 --> 00:05:02,326
while Native bones were deposited
as specimens on museum shelves.

86
00:05:03,380 --> 00:05:06,705
In the wake of war, stolen land,
boarding schools,

87
00:05:06,729 --> 00:05:08,516
laws banning religion,

88
00:05:08,540 --> 00:05:10,642
anthropologists collected sacred objects

89
00:05:10,666 --> 00:05:14,657
in the belief that Native peoples
were on the cusp of extinction.

90
00:05:16,162 --> 00:05:20,545
You can call it racism or colonialism,
but the labels don't matter

91
00:05:20,569 --> 00:05:23,377
as much as the fact
that over the last century,

92
00:05:23,401 --> 00:05:27,011
Native American rights and culture
were taken from them.

93
00:05:28,039 --> 00:05:31,250
In 1990, after years of Native protests,

94
00:05:31,274 --> 00:05:33,707
the US government,
through the US Congress,

95
00:05:33,731 --> 00:05:38,081
finally passed a law that allowed
Native Americans to reclaim

96
00:05:38,105 --> 00:05:41,699
cultural items, sacred objects
and human remains from museums.

97
00:05:42,854 --> 00:05:45,458
Many archaeologists were panicked.

98
00:05:46,713 --> 00:05:47,887
For scientists,

99
00:05:47,911 --> 00:05:54,151
it can be hard to fully grasp
how a piece of wood can be a living god

100
00:05:54,175 --> 00:05:56,403
or how spirits surround bones.

101
00:05:56,427 --> 00:06:00,229
And they knew that modern science,
especially with DNA,

102
00:06:00,253 --> 00:06:03,792
can provide luminous insights
into the past.

103
00:06:05,155 --> 00:06:07,714
As the anthropologist
Frank Norwick declared,

104
00:06:07,738 --> 00:06:11,869
"We are doing important work
that benefits all of mankind.

105
00:06:11,893 --> 00:06:14,920
We are not returning anything to anyone."

106
00:06:17,381 --> 00:06:20,358
As a college student,
all of this was an enigma

107
00:06:20,382 --> 00:06:22,777
that was hard to decipher.

108
00:06:23,409 --> 00:06:26,402
Why did Native Americans
want their heritage back

109
00:06:26,426 --> 00:06:28,806
from the very places preserving it?

110
00:06:29,849 --> 00:06:33,071
And how could scientists
spend their entire lives

111
00:06:33,095 --> 00:06:34,586
studying dead Indians

112
00:06:34,610 --> 00:06:37,687
but seem to care so little
about living ones?

113
00:06:40,221 --> 00:06:43,412
I graduated but wasn't sure
what to do next,

114
00:06:43,436 --> 00:06:45,094
so I traveled.

115
00:06:46,897 --> 00:06:48,596
One day, in South Africa,

116
00:06:48,620 --> 00:06:52,079
I visited Nelson Mandela's
former prison cell on Robben Island.

117
00:06:53,160 --> 00:06:54,477
I had an epiphany.

118
00:06:55,590 --> 00:06:59,774
Here was a man who helped
a country bridge vast divides

119
00:06:59,798 --> 00:07:02,695
to seek, however imperfectly,
reconciliation.

120
00:07:04,120 --> 00:07:06,829
I'm no Mandela, but I ask myself:

121
00:07:06,853 --> 00:07:10,813
Could I, too, plant seeds of hope
in the ruins of the past?

122
00:07:11,586 --> 00:07:13,955
In 2007, I was hired as a curator

123
00:07:13,979 --> 00:07:16,777
at the Denver Museum
of Nature and Science.

124
00:07:16,801 --> 00:07:20,013
Our team agreed that unlike
many other institutions,

125
00:07:20,037 --> 00:07:24,587
we needed to proactively confront
the legacy of museum collecting.

126
00:07:25,850 --> 00:07:29,065
We started with
the skeletons in our closet,

127
00:07:29,089 --> 00:07:30,476
100 of them.

128
00:07:31,035 --> 00:07:33,782
After months and then years,
we met with dozens of tribes

129
00:07:33,806 --> 00:07:36,082
to figure out how to get
these remains home.

130
00:07:36,840 --> 00:07:38,198
And this is hard work.

131
00:07:38,222 --> 00:07:42,301
It involves negotiating
who will receive the remains,

132
00:07:42,325 --> 00:07:44,253
how to respectfully transfer them,

133
00:07:44,277 --> 00:07:46,007
where will they go.

134
00:07:46,734 --> 00:07:50,341
Native American leaders
become undertakers,

135
00:07:50,365 --> 00:07:54,944
planning funerals for dead relatives
they had never wanted unearthed.

136
00:07:57,106 --> 00:07:59,816
A decade later, the Denver Museum
and our Native partners

137
00:07:59,840 --> 00:08:03,606
have reburied nearly all
of the human remains in the collection.

138
00:08:04,098 --> 00:08:06,677
We have returned
hundreds of sacred objects.

139
00:08:07,600 --> 00:08:10,764
But I've come to see
that these battles are endless.

140
00:08:11,837 --> 00:08:15,598
Repatriation is now a permanent feature
of the museum world.

141
00:08:17,310 --> 00:08:19,548
Hundreds of tribes are waiting their turn.

142
00:08:20,668 --> 00:08:23,841
There are always
more museums with more stuff.

143
00:08:24,766 --> 00:08:27,679
Every catalogued War God
in an American public museum

144
00:08:27,703 --> 00:08:31,933
has now been returned -- 106, so far --

145
00:08:31,957 --> 00:08:34,997
but there are more
beyond the reach of US law,

146
00:08:35,021 --> 00:08:37,988
in private collections
and outside our borders.

147
00:08:39,225 --> 00:08:44,329
In 2014, I had the chance to travel
with a respected religious leader

148
00:08:44,353 --> 00:08:48,195
from the Zuni tribe
named Octavius Seowtewa

149
00:08:48,219 --> 00:08:50,908
to visit five museums
in Europe with War Gods.

150
00:08:51,680 --> 00:08:54,339
At the Ethnological Museum of Berlin,

151
00:08:54,363 --> 00:08:58,092
we saw a War God
with a history of dubious care.

152
00:08:58,443 --> 00:09:02,062
An overly enthusiastic curator
had added chicken feathers to it.

153
00:09:02,922 --> 00:09:05,022
Its necklace had once been stolen.

154
00:09:06,267 --> 00:09:08,316
At the Musée du quai Branly in Paris,

155
00:09:08,340 --> 00:09:11,673
an official told us that the War God there
is now state property

156
00:09:11,697 --> 00:09:14,530
with no provisions for repatriation.

157
00:09:14,554 --> 00:09:17,466
He insisted that the War God
no longer served Zunis

158
00:09:17,490 --> 00:09:18,807
but museum visitors.

159
00:09:19,238 --> 00:09:22,418
He said, "We give all
of the objects to the world."

160
00:09:23,487 --> 00:09:24,939
At the British Museum,

161
00:09:24,963 --> 00:09:28,971
we were warned that the Zuni case
would establish a dangerous precedent

162
00:09:28,995 --> 00:09:30,440
for bigger disputes,

163
00:09:30,464 --> 00:09:34,018
such as the Parthenon Marbles,
claimed by Greece.

164
00:09:34,574 --> 00:09:37,043
After visiting the five museums,

165
00:09:37,067 --> 00:09:40,867
Octavius returned home
to his people empty-handed.

166
00:09:42,284 --> 00:09:43,594
He later told me,

167
00:09:43,618 --> 00:09:46,919
"It hurts my heart to see
the Ahayu:da so far away.

168
00:09:46,943 --> 00:09:48,617
They all belong together.

169
00:09:49,066 --> 00:09:53,344
It's like a family member
that's missing from a family dinner.

170
00:09:54,292 --> 00:09:57,716
When one is gone,
their strength is broken."

171
00:09:58,848 --> 00:10:01,662
I wish that my colleagues
in Europe and beyond

172
00:10:01,686 --> 00:10:05,163
could see that the War Gods
do not represent the end of museums

173
00:10:05,187 --> 00:10:07,384
but the chance for a new beginning.

174
00:10:08,861 --> 00:10:11,457
When you walk the halls of a museum,

175
00:10:11,481 --> 00:10:14,250
you're likely just seeing
about one percent

176
00:10:14,274 --> 00:10:15,493
of the total collections.

177
00:10:15,517 --> 00:10:17,511
The rest is in storage.

178
00:10:17,535 --> 00:10:21,322
Even after returning
500 cultural items and skeletons,

179
00:10:21,346 --> 00:10:27,218
my museum still retains 99.999 percent
of its total collections.

180
00:10:27,987 --> 00:10:29,647
Though we no longer have War Gods,

181
00:10:29,671 --> 00:10:32,051
we have Zuni traditional pottery,

182
00:10:32,075 --> 00:10:35,487
jewelry, tools, clothing and arts.

183
00:10:36,461 --> 00:10:39,288
And even more precious than these objects

184
00:10:39,312 --> 00:10:42,645
are the relationships that we formed
with Native Americans

185
00:10:42,669 --> 00:10:45,295
through the process of repatriation.

186
00:10:46,673 --> 00:10:51,347
Now, we can ask Zunis
to share their culture with us.

187
00:10:52,810 --> 00:10:56,469
Not long ago, I had the chance
to visit the returned War Gods.

188
00:10:57,263 --> 00:11:02,791
A shrine sits up high atop a mesa
overlooking beautiful Zuni homeland.

189
00:11:04,466 --> 00:11:08,681
The shrine is enclosed
by a roofless stone building

190
00:11:08,705 --> 00:11:11,133
threaded at the top with barbed wire

191
00:11:11,157 --> 00:11:13,093
to ensure that they're not stolen again.

192
00:11:14,553 --> 00:11:16,894
And there they are, inside,

193
00:11:16,918 --> 00:11:18,122
the Ahayu:da,

194
00:11:18,146 --> 00:11:23,557
106 War Gods amid offerings
of turquoise, cornmeal, shell,

195
00:11:23,581 --> 00:11:24,787
even T-shirts ...

196
00:11:26,149 --> 00:11:28,097
a modern gift to ancient beings.

197
00:11:29,306 --> 00:11:31,021
And standing there,

198
00:11:31,045 --> 00:11:34,488
I got a glimpse at the War Gods'
true purpose in the world.

199
00:11:35,518 --> 00:11:37,161
And it occurred to me then

200
00:11:37,185 --> 00:11:41,240
that we do not get to choose
the histories that we inherit.

201
00:11:42,043 --> 00:11:45,178
Museum curators today
did not pillage ancient graves

202
00:11:45,202 --> 00:11:46,988
or steal spiritual objects,

203
00:11:47,012 --> 00:11:51,274
but we can accept responsibility
for correcting past mistakes.

204
00:11:52,232 --> 00:11:54,472
We can help restore dignity,

205
00:11:54,496 --> 00:11:57,933
hope and humanity to Native Americans,

206
00:11:57,957 --> 00:12:01,774
the very people who were once
the voiceless objects of our curiosity.

207
00:12:02,400 --> 00:12:07,481
And this doesn't even require us
to fully understand others' beliefs,

208
00:12:07,505 --> 00:12:09,598
only that we respect them.

209
00:12:10,732 --> 00:12:13,457
Museums are temples to things past.

210
00:12:14,406 --> 00:12:18,278
Now they must also become
places for living cultures.

211
00:12:20,466 --> 00:12:22,736
As I turned to walk away from the shrine,

212
00:12:22,760 --> 00:12:25,134
I drank in the warm summer air,

213
00:12:25,158 --> 00:12:28,239
and I watched an eagle
turn lazy circles high above.

214
00:12:29,483 --> 00:12:30,936
I thought of the Zunis,

215
00:12:30,960 --> 00:12:35,155
whose offerings ensure
that their culture is not dead and gone

216
00:12:35,179 --> 00:12:36,821
but alive and well,

217
00:12:37,970 --> 00:12:41,390
and I could think of no better place
for the War Gods to be.

218
00:12:42,069 --> 00:12:43,220
Thank you.

219
00:12:43,244 --> 00:12:48,500
(Applause)