The Petersburg Indian Association recently announced that they will be repatriating the remains of a 6-month-old Tlingit girl. She’s one of three ancestors the tribe plans to inter in Petersburg, two of whom have been in the tribe’s possession for over 10 years.
Stephanie Aikins, tribal administrative assistant for PIA, spearheaded the project. At a community dinner on August 4, where they made the announcement, Aikins said she’s been working on repatriating the infant’s remains since last May.
“This is uncharted territory,” she said. “There’s a lot of clan objects that have been taken and returned, not many who are ancestors.”
PIA applied for a grant to help cover the cost of the repatriation efforts through the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, or NAGPRA. NAGPRA is a federal law that requires federal agencies and institutions that receive federal money to return important remains, funerary objects, sacred objects, and objects of cultural patrimony to lineal descendants, culturally-affiliated Indian Tribes, and Native Hawaiian organizations. PIA received about $24,000 for this project.
Aikins said that the remains of the six-month-old girl are currently being held at the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture in Seattle. Aikins will be among a group of three traveling to Seattle on September 1 to receive the remains. They will return to Petersburg on September 4 and will host a welcoming ceremony at the airport that day for the infant girl’s return.
“She has been gone away from her land for almost 100 years,” Aikins said, “and she will be back on her land for the first time on September 4th.”
Aikins said that the tribe will host a larger ceremony later in the fall, where they will inter the remains of the girl along with the two other ancestors already in their possession.
