Tongass notice ties remains of at least 10 to Sitka Tribe of Alaska

The remains of at least 10 Native American individuals and associated funerary objects held by the Tongass National Forest may be returned to the Sitka Tribe of Alaska on or after Oct. 16, under a Federal Register notice published Wednesday. The Notice of Inventory Completion, filed under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, identifies whether cultural affiliation has been determined and lets tribes and Native Hawaiian organizations state their interest in claiming the items. Publication starts a mandatory 30-day waiting period before repatriation can proceed.

The funerary objects include a mortuary pole collected around 1895 from John Brady's homestead in Sitka and placed in the Sheldon Jackson Museum. The notice says the remains and objects likely originated from the village site of Krugloi Point on Halleck Island.

The Tongass National Forest determined, after consultation, a cultural affiliation between the remains and objects and the Sitka Tribe of Alaska. NAGPRA gives affiliated tribes priority to reclaim such sacred items, though the Forest Service makes the affiliation determination itself. Elsewhere in Southeast Alaska, other tribal bodies and clans have contested single-tribe determinations.

A standing report from the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development's Division of Libraries, Archives and Museums to the Alaska State Board of Education in March said the pole, cataloged as SJ-I-A-248, "has been covered and accompanied by a new label that speaks to the status of this sacred item." The report said the pole entered the collection in 1895 and was deaccessioned to the U.S. Forest Service in 2019, leaving the federal agency with legal control while the pole remains physically at the Sitka museum. The museum has been working with the Forest Service and the Sitka Tribe of Alaska on plans for the pole's physical transfer.

The Sitka Tribe of Alaska and Tlingit clans, including the Kaagwaantaan and Kiks.ádi, have long sought the return of ancestral remains and clan-owned at.óow from museums and federal collections. They describe the items as sacred and their return as a restoration of clan identity. The tribe has received ancestral remains before, including from the Smithsonian in 2007 and the Penn Museum in 2019.

Alaska News has covered several similar federal notices this year, including ones clearing at least 46 Alaska Native ancestors and 14 cultural belongings for return from museums outside Alaska.

Written repatriation requests go to Janelle Crocker, acting forest supervisor for the Tongass National Forest.