PRESS BRIEFING: Native American Remains Discovered in Storage at University of North Dakota Campus

GRAND FORKS, ND (trfnews.i234.me) University of North Dakota President Andy Armacost and other faculty members held a news conference to explain how the remains and artifacts of American Indians found on campus will be moved back to their homes.
my name is david dodds and i am the communication director at the university of north dakota i am joined today on the panel by umd president andrew armacost who will lead the university’s responses today he is joined on the panel by nathan davis executive director of the north dakota indian affairs commission and und professor doug mcdonald and lane lions both of whom are members of our und repatriation committee just a quick note that we are recording the press conference so it can be shared afterward before we get to media questions i would first like to turn it over to opening remarks from our panelists good afternoon my name is andy armacost and i’m the president of the university of north dakota as dave dodds just mentioned i’m joined by lane lyons doug mcdonald and nathan davis and uh i appreciate their contributions to the information that we’re going to share today i must begin my remarks by offering my respect to native american communities and indigenous people throughout north america the information i’m sharing today must begin with my apologies to them and also to stress our commitment to the work that i’m about to describe and see it through until it’s very end work began at und last november to develop campus policies on the process of returning native american artifacts to tribal lands this is a process known as repatriation we began with the formation of a committee which comprised both indigenous and non-indigenous members i’m extraordinarily proud of the work that this committee has done over many months and in a moment you will hear a first-hand account of one committee member lane lyons in late february members of the committee began searching for a missing sacred item on our campus that search led to the discovery of a significant number of artifacts most notably ancestral remains which by culture and custom are known to be ancestors even a single bone or a bone fragment from a human being is known to be an ancestor since that discovery we have been working with representatives from tribes in the region to seek their advice and their counsel and to begin the early steps in the process of repatriation we reached out by phone and in person their recent visit to our campus included blessing of spaces where ancestors and sacred items were stored and the single location where the arduous work of developing a complete understanding of what we have here at und will happen the response of each tribal representative has been common anger sadness acceptance of our apologies and appreciation that we are involving them from the outset of this work we will continue this spirit of partnership throughout our repatriation activities we hope that this model of tribal partnership and involvement at the very beginning of repatriation can serve as a model for other universities and museums across north america this work will attempt to to connect ancestors and artifacts with their place of origin and we will hire the appropriate experts to support us when this is complete the ancestors and sacred items will be returned in a manner consistent with the native american grave protection and repatriation act otherwise known as nagpra involving federal agencies state agencies and most importantly the tribal nations themselves the number of ancestors that we have here currently on campus can be measured in the dozens when we include other sacred artifacts we have well over 250 boxes please know that our records for the ancestors and items in our procession are incomplete and our work will connect them to the sites from where they were taken our initial impression is that some of the ancestors and funerary items were taken directly from sacred burial mounds these excavations took place over the course of decades from the 1940s and into the 1980s we believe that repatriation activities did previously happen at und but how and why ancestors and sacred items remain on our campus is a mystery that we will have to answer in the course of our work our intent of sharing this news today is to apologize to tribal nations across north america to avoid speculation about what’s been happening on campus and to offer our public commitment to those tribal nations and to the entire nation that we’re going to return the ancestors and the artifacts to their homes i have offered this commitment in the most strong and the strongest possible terms to the council chairs of tribes associated with the state of north dakota the awareness of this work will allow us to have open conversations with the students faculty and staff at the university of north dakota about the importance of repatriation and our commitment to see it through yesterday we held two open sessions for our american indian campus members the first was with faculty and staff the second was with students please know that this is an extraordinarily traumatic time for them and we have resources on our campus and in place to support them as they struggle with this news we will continue to partner with all tribes connected to these ancestors and sacred items undoubtedly our connections will continue to grow as we learn more and finally let me touch on the issue of accountability our top priority currently is the return of ancestors and sacred items home to their tribal lands our knowledge of how this happened must include discussions with people involved in und’s archaeological research efforts in prior decades their accounts will be important as we piece together why this repatriation did not happen sooner and also to address systemic issues at the university that led to where we are today please let me now introduce lane lyons to come forward for her comments good afternoon everyone my name is lane lyons i am an enrolled member of the charter mountain band of chippewa india’s located in belfort north dakota i’m a director of development for the college of arts and sciences here at und and i’m also an alumni 2016 of the college of arts and sciences as well today i’ll be speaking on behalf of the negro compliance committee this committee includes doug mcdonald keith malter daniel henry allison kelleher donald warren kyle hill crystal alberts william carragher senator heitkamp birgit hans elizabeth sharp kurt hansen heather wages and myself with their permission i’ll be speaking on the repatriation process we have started here at the university of north dakota on november 18 2021 i met crystal alberts to look at a collection that included headdresses or warbonnets traditional dresses moccasins and other sacred items these items were brought into a question through a partnership with a tribal entity after establishing the wear and tear of these items we began working on policies and taking a deeper dive into what und had or owned since it seemed that no one really knew what we had or how we got them fast forward to march 3rd 2022 sarah hartkamp and her assistant and crystal alberts came across a ceremonial pipe in a space while documenting what they thought was anthropological artifacts after stopping the documentation crystal called me to assist with cultural protocols at that time i didn’t feel comfortable doing it by myself so i made a phone call to dr don warren and dr allison kelleher to help assist as well after our cultural protocols took place we decided to take a look at another space between 12 30 and 1 30 pm on march 3rd 2022 don warren allison kelleher crystal alberts and myself discover the first ancestor dr warren identified the box um that contained the ancestor um i will never forget the look on his face as it was the face of disappointment and that moment my heart sunk into my stomach it was at that moment that i knew we were another institution that didn’t do the right thing following the discovery we informed other committee members at that time of the tragic news their hearts sunk to their stomachs as well they felt betrayed angry sad frustrated and exhausted all feelings and emotions that happen when grieving i will never forget the look on their faces and the sound of their voices as well during that same time we informed the university administration of our findings the same feelings were felt and expressed it begs the questions how did this happen who did this why did they do this all questions we are seeking to know and looking to answer as we move forward president armacost and myself and others started having individual conversations with tribal representatives and state and federal agencies to discuss our findings all who we spoke with were shocked upset angry and devastated personally these conversations were extremely difficult for me they made me relive march 3rd every day over and over as we continue to search other areas more and more ancestors began to be discovered each new one that was found felt like a deeper and deeper cut and there are hearts i want to make this clear through this process it was important to our committee that we be transparent and open with our indigenous communities we have a strong and resilient indigenous community amongst und student staff faculty and alumni we felt it was important to involve tribal representatives in the process instead of notifying them at the very end we felt it was important to do this process in the most respectful way possible the conversations i just mentioned although there was hurt sadness and anger there was also appreciation they appreciated the way that we were handling this and expressed that this was not the norm when dealing with situations like this as we continue through this long and emotional work we will contin we will continue to do this with the most respectful way possible being transparent honest and respectful will continue to guide this university the committee including myself is proud of the work that we’ve done and the approach that we’ve taken the representation of the committee and the guidance we’ve received is the reason we have done this process in a different way and that’s a good way if there is any advice we could give on behalf of the committee it would be for all institutions to look at their history and what they may have due to that history this is a painful process for our indigenous communities but what is even more painful is to ignore or just pass off what you know or what you might find in closing i just would like to say that we are so grateful for the help guidance and trust that we have been given by so many at this start of the process we felt anger hurt sadness however we can now feel a sense of relief and hope because our ancestors will be returned to their rightful place and that’s home we’ll make sure that thank you alcohol i greet you in the language of my family of the lakota people say hello to good friends and give my name which was given to me when i was discharged from the us navy spotted hawk i’ve been a professor at this university for going on 31 years now in the department of psychology and the director of the indians in the psychology program i arrived on this campus in the midst of the whole fighting zoo and logo situation uh which even at that time after 1992 certainly drugged on for for years and i don’t have to remind any that were here or that we’re even just remotely aware of that that experience that it left scars with relatives on both sides of the issue and certainly in and amongst the und american indian community i can speak with assurance that this has been harder it’s been tougher i was also here in 1997 during the flood and directed the disaster mental health response during that time and i remember something that one of the red cross mental health responders told me she was very experienced and she said doug a flood is different than than any other type of natural disaster in the sense that it doesn’t just happen immediately and then you start to deal with the aftermath she said it’s it’s a slow-moving disaster and those words have come back to me ever since i was notified of the situation with the ancestors back in february this is a slow-moving disaster for many of us is certainly those of us that are that are tasked with dealing with it and for those of us that are tasked with dealing with it those of us that have agreed to assume the responsibilities necessary i’d like everyone to understand that none of us have been trained or are fully competent to do this work i i’m a psychologist and albeit an american indian psychologist and that is my area of expertise that i bring to the committee but there’s no one on the committee that signed up for this by any means and there’s no one on this committee that knew anything about this uh we’re doing our best by all means and when i say best we’ve had to constantly remind ourselves throughout that as soon as we became aware of as many of the variables that we could that there was no [Music] right way or no good way to make the many different decisions that we’ve had to make many times the decisions that we’ve arrived upon and they haven’t always been fully consensual or happy necessarily have been to settle on the least bad decision because they all hurt i am sure that anyone listening to this whether you be of american indian or indigenous heritage or not can at least appreciate the pain and the anguish associated with becoming aware of the circumstances for those of us on the committee that are of american indian descent i know i can speak for commissioner davis as well that we we are all northern plains american indian tribal members and when we became aware of the locations and those of which we know from which the ancestors came from you suddenly begin to realize knowing where your own family and tribes came from that it’s highly likely that those are your ancestors and like i said that’s hard it’s been hard to maintain the confidentiality and i’m trained to maintain confidentiality as a psychologist and it’s been excruciating to be able only able after all these moments to be able to share it with you so i hope folks will appreciate that as i touched on earlier my primary responsibility to the committee is to lend a mental health response similar to this new flood that we’re facing in terms of disaster mental health response and those details are certainly available on our website and our primary concern has been our american indian students and their families and allies as well as certainly our american indian faculty staff and families and allies by all means and i will end with that and thank everyone for their concern and pray for our continued healing because there’s still a lot of work to do to bring the ancestors home oh as you heard previously from president armacost my name is nathan davis and i serve currently as the executive director in affairs here in the state of north dakota i’m an enrolled member that was born and raised in the turkey mountains my mother’s family is a turtle mountain band of chip waitings and my father’s family is minimum kakanoite from the spirit-like nation uh receiving this news about our ancestors i can imagine is not easy for anyone that’s listening anyone that has been having these conversations the last few days it wasn’t easy for me nor was it something i ever expected to come across my desk and with the position that i currently hold and i will say what hit me really hard was as a native man our job is to protect the younger generations our life givers and to bestow them teachings that will carry them into the future and along with that our job is to protect our teachings to protect our initiative our elders and to honor our ancestors and protect them as well my initial reaction as you heard was very similar to a lot of the other relatives that have heard this news recently first it was it was shock it was disbelief and i want to say those that know me will probably understand this it was the first time in my life that i was speechless that’s not something that really ever happens uh to me uh but that that feeling of shock and disbelief soon gave way to to confusion and to anger and in the teachings that i received in my life from my elders from my ancestors you know all i could do was go home and pray i prayed for our ancestors and i i hoped that they would find peace in this process as that was the first i’ve heard of it and i will say that in our in our way in our culture and anything that i was taught when one of our loved ones passes on they are mourned over they are prayed over and there is a ceremony for them to begin their journey and once we put them in the ground and become one with our mother that is where they are to stay there’s nothing that i’ve ever been taught as a native american man to put my relatives back in the ground that violates who we are that violates our culture so when we say this hurts it’s because it touches our soul it touches our spirit because in our ways this is not supposed to happen our loved ones are supposed to rest immediately following my initial visit with president armacost and miss lyons i had to take a few moments to get myself together and i will say that in my position being afforded the luxury of letting my personal feelings come to the surface not something that happens regularly no matter what happens we have a job to do i have a duty to carry out on behalf of my people and on behalf of the state of north dakota so i immediately scheduled a follow-up meeting with governor burgum and really following those conversations i facilitated yet another follow-up meeting that included president armacost and miss lyons and i will say through those conversations my direct boss which would be governor brook was very fired up he takes tribal engagement to the utmost importance and he understands the need for mutual respect and understanding with our travel partners in which we share geography with but following those meetings we had private conversations and i will say that he allowed me to be open he allowed me to be honest and i will say that i was not only speaking with a boss at that moment but a friend and through those conversations he understood that as a state of north dakota we needed to stand by as a partner and honor the work that is now happening here in the university of north dakota and for his understanding and his respect i will be forever grateful because he truly understood what this will mean to my relatives and to my family members not only across north dakota across the nation as this news became public and i will say that as terrible as this news has been and how insensitive and inexcusable the treatment of our ancestors has been historically in the name of science because that’s what this boils down to that’s always the excuse and then i’ll say this as a native man as nathan davis science can no longer be an excuse from preventing our ancestors from returning home i would personally like to commend president armacost for his leadership in these hard times could have tried to sweep this under the rug but he stood up and accepted full responsibility for what is now happening here at the university of north dakota and i will take it one step further and say which truly truly meant the world to me is that he brought in native american staff and native american faculty to lead these efforts he understood that this was not his area he understood the need for respect for understanding or cultural appropriateness to make sure that tribes were not an afterthought in this process as historically we have been and so to him and to his team i say the glitch the work that happens here will honor our ancestors and that’s our duty to honor them no matter how hard this is uh how much it hurts how confused we are how angry we are we have to stand up and we have to honor our ancestors and make sure that they return home and i would say we had a very unique opportunity to honor them by changing the way that not only north dakota but the united states itself approaches repatriation because we all know that sadly this work is far from over and to all of you that have experience with this you’ll know what i’m saying and one of the hardest issues of this now just speaking personally is one of the follow-up meetings that i had to facilitate was with a group of individuals that i consider my mentors people that i grew up around i was a very young elected tribal leader so i sat around with these great men many meetings on many tables and i learned from each one of them individually how they approached the situation their speaking style their demeanor i took pieces of each of them as i grew around them and kind of molded into my own style and i will say that without warning i brought this to their table and we say in our culture we’re getting every meeting in a good way a good heart because not a lot of meetings are easy but we make sure that there’s humor and we make sure that we come away with a mutual understanding but that day was probably one of the hardest days i’ve ever had in my professional career is seen the look on the faces of the men that i admire the men that i look up to my leaders my relatives as they were hurt and they were confused and they have a running joke now on it that was the first time i ever came in to see them that i didn’t try to stick around for lunch um so if they’re listening they’ll understand that joke and as we begin the process of speaking with indigenous staff and faculty there was a lot of confusion and a lot of anger as well and we know that there’s going to be insensitivity there’s going to be some hurtful opinions that surface due to this news being released and to all native americans i will say no matter how hard things get now is not the time to hide who we are today is not that day yesterday was not that day nor will tomorrow be that day we have to stand up we have to do what’s right by our ancestors we have to rely on our culture and our teachings to carry us through these hard times and with that i say glitch with our remaining time today we will open the florida media questions of the panel if you have a question for our panelists go ahead and use the raise hand function on the bottom of your zoom screen and then i can call on you and unmute your mic so you can ask your question and any follow-ups you might have we have reserved this time for members of our media so if you are a non-media member of our audience we appreciate your attendance but respectfully ask if you can yield the q a session to members of the media to the members of the media if you would please state your name and news outlet that you represent and then ask your question that would be great with that the q a session will begin momentarily um okay our first question today is from Neil Berg neil go ahead and ask your question all right can you hear me i think you might be muted neil all right can you hear me now all right we’re going to to move on next to sidney mook of the grand forks herald sydney go ahead and ask your question and one um curious you know where where these um sacred items and ancestors were were found or able to say you know what what building and what department would have been in charge of them kind of who would have been responsible for overseeing them well as far as specific locations we um we prefer not to release the details of where on campus they were or where they are currently there were multiple locations and through the support of tribal representatives recently in august we we moved the ancestors and the sacred items to a single location on the campus but in the interest of keeping that work private i think it’s important not to talk about the details of those locations as to the question i think that was implied by who is responsible um ultimately i’m responsible um part of the work as i mentioned earlier is tracing what happened and how we would make such a discovery almost in plain sight of of these sacred artifacts and ancestors and so our immediate goal is to repatriate the ancestors and sacred items to the tribal nations as soon as possible um i’ll call it a second order uh area that we’re looking at is the lineage of of responsibility and and how did this happen and that will require significant conversations with people involved in in this work and carefully looking at archived records to piece together that puzzle um but what i can do is offer my assurance that now that these items are in our control and we know them to be in our control we will take full responsibility for making making sure repatriation happens as quickly as possible we’re now going to move to a question from