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Native-American Remains Find Final Home in Alaskan Village

Episcopal News Service. November 18, 1999 [99-177]

Donna Miller MacAlpine, Historian and Publisher of the Anvik Historical Society Newsletter

After many months of negotiations between the Anvik Tribal Council and the American Museum of Natural History in New York, some human remains and their associated funerary objects were returned to Anvik, their Alaskan village of origin, last July. Chief Carl Jerue, Jr., and Tribal Council member Ronald Kruger, Sr., travelled to New York to witness the packing of the remains and to accompany them home. The reburial and potlatch took place July 28.

The remains were the skulls of three adult males, three females and a child that had been removed in 1903 during an expansion of the Episcopal Mission, which was established in Anvik in 1887. Their return was prompted by the Native American Graves and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), which requires all museums in the United States to report to Native American tribes their inventories of all human remains and associated items and to eventually return them to their places of origin.

The remains returned to Anvik also included objects buried with the various persons, including clay lamps, knives, bracelets, wooden boxes, awls and scrapers, a comb and two bear tooth pendants.

While this not the first time that bones had been repatriated in Alaska under the 1990 federal act, it was the first time for an Athabaskan village. The office of the Diocese of Alaska confirmed that it was the first time that the Episcopal Church had been involved.

Preparations for a funeral

The people of Anvik prepared for the reburial as they would have for a funeral. The men built a large coffin with seven compartments, which the women lined with bright cotton prints. Tribal workers dug the grave and built a "fence" to cover the grave.

Many items such as gloves, hatchets, towels and yarn were purchased to distribute at the potlatch, a ceremonial feast at which special foods are served and gifts presented by the family to the guests. A number of women prepared for the potlatch/give-away by making beaded items and other things. Since there was no information about the families of the deceased in this case, the Anvik Tribal Council sponsored the potlatch. In addition, a few days before the reburial a hunting party went out and got a moose under a special permit.

On Tuesday afternoon, the remains of the ancestors were brought to the City Building and placed in the coffin in the presence of the elders. All others were asked to leave the hall at this time. The Rev. Trimble Gilbert of Arctic Village said prayers in Gwich'in. The coffin remained overnight in the hall. Guests who had already arrived were fed at the building, and later in the evening everyone was welcomed by Jerue, who gave a brief history of what led up to this occasion and a description of the trip to New York. Representatives of other villages also spoke. The Anvik Dancers then danced in front of the coffin to honor the remains.

Wednesday was a very busy day, as many more guests were arriving by plane and boat. Anvik households were occupied with last-minute details and with cooking for the potlatch. With the arrival of Bishop Mark MacDonald of Alaska; Steve Ginnis, Tanana Chiefs president, and others from Anchorage, final preparations were made for the service. Soon after their arrival the artifacts from the graves, which had been displayed at the local museum, were brought to the City Building and placed in a tray inside the top of the coffin.

Request for forgiveness

When this was finished everyone gathered again inside the City Building and the bishop started the service by kneeling before the coffin and declaring repentance for the evil that had been done in the removal of the remains from the graves by a member of the church. This act of penitence and request for forgiveness was then followed by prayers and an explanation of what was to follow.

The coffin was then taken by truck to the front of the church, where the service continued. The coffin was not taken inside; everyone stood around it seemingly unmindful of the mosquitoes and a light rain. It was somewhere in this area that the old graves were originally located.

From there the coffin was carried up the old trail from the church to the cemetery. The grave had been prepared on the point of a ridge a short distance below a cluster of old graves and everyone gathered there for the interment, which included prayers and singing. Crackers, dry fish and pop were distributed, as is customary at a funeral.

The potlatch was held at the City Building and started with the distribution of gifts and of special foods such as vinggiq -- Indian ice cream -- of several varieties, plus cookies and candy. Some remarks were made by Chief Jerue, who then introduced Laura Chapman Rico, granddaughter of the Rev. John Chapman, Anvik's first priest, who had removed the remains and sent them to New York.

Chapman had a reputation as a scholar with particular interests in linguistics, anthropology and culture. He learned the local language, collected folk tales, and wrote about the Anvik people in articles published in several anthropological journals. He also encouraged explorers and scientists who were traveling along the Yukon River to stop at Anvik to talk about their work with him and his staff.

Although apparently eager to study the seven skulls he sent to the museum, he relocated other remains from their original graves to another part of the cemetery near the mission.

Rico read a statement from herself and her sister, Anna, which requested forgiveness for the wrong that had been done. Anna's son, John Henry Chapman Congdon, also signed the statement.

'A man of his time'

"We...know that it has been painful for the people of Anvik to realize that he [Chapman] removed skeletal remains from ancestral graves nearly 100 years ago. Coming to terms with this knowledge has been painful for us, too," she read.

Noting Chapman's deep interest in science and respect for local language and culture, she said her grandfather "was a man of his time -- a time when sensitivity to different cultures was not as highly developed as it is today. If he were alive today, we are sure he would not have removed the remains. And he would rejoice in their return to the place where they belong....It's a relief to know that an old wrong has been set right."

She added, "We hope that you can find it in your hearts to forgive that wrong, because we know that forgiveness brings healing over time."

When she finished, Hannah Painter Maillelle, an elder now living in Grayling, rose and stated that as a person born in Anvik she forgave Laura's grandfather for what he had done. This was followed by another statement of forgiveness by Marsha Jerue, who has lived in Anvik all her life.

The tables were overflowing with food and guests were invited to eat first, followed by local elders and others. The tables were then cleared away and the Anvik Dancers danced for the audience, including an invitational dance, which gave everyone a chance to take part.

Then Gilbert got out his fiddle, and the bishop got out his guitar, and they played for over an hour. Their musical selection included everything from hymns to a couple of jigs, with some country gospel songs in between. There were even a few dancers on the floor from time to time. After the musicians wearied and put their instruments away, elder Poldine Carlo sang a few upriver mourning songs to conclude the celebration.

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