ABSTRACT
There can be a “trauma of history’ for a people. As conceived by psychologists, psychological anthropologists and others, a people may be traumatised by a catastrophe, much as individuals may be traumatised by terrible life events. As is the case with individuals, psychologists tell us that the trauma must be realised, confronted and dealt with if healing is to occur. Such trauma has been characterised as a “soul wound;” it has even been said to be passed on from one generation to another. Native Americans in the United States suffered traumas resulting from events of colonialisation over the centuries. These include wars and massacres, removals and relocations, epidemics of European disease and the destruction of Native American societies and cultures. That Native American human remains and important cultural objects have been disenfranchised from them by the colonisers and held in museums – sometimes also displayed – has been a specific type of trauma to which Native Americans have been subjected. Some of these remains and/or objects were obtained from the worst episodes in a tribe’s history (e.g. the Sand Creek Massacre of Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho, the Wounded Knee Massacre of the Sioux). This has served to accentuate the trauma of the event. United States federal legislation in 1989 (the National Museum of the American Indian Act) and 1990 (the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act) mandated the return of Native American human remains and specified types of cultural objects under certain conditions. Many resulting repatriations have occurred. Through repatriations – including the admission of ownership by tribes and (either explicitly or implicitly) that there was a ‘wrongdoing’ – Native Americans have achieved some ‘healing of (soul) wounds’. This chapter will explore these issues in more detail and illustrate how specific repatriations have helped tribes to move beyond tragedies experienced in the United States.
