Cultural Sensitivity and Repatriation
As in most cultures, Native peoples create some works that are to be used only in sacred, private ceremonies. Many sacred objects or items that contain medicine are to be seen or touched by certain individuals with specialized knowledge. Many Pueblo and Hopi katsina figures (tihü in Hopi and kokko in Zuni) and katsinam regalia are not meant to be seen by individuals who have not received instruction about that particular katsina. Many institutions do not display these publicly out of respect for tribal taboos.
Mide birch bark scrolls are deemed too culturally sensitive for public display, as are medicine bundles, certain sacred pipes and pipe bags, and other tools of medicine people.
Navajo sandpainting is a component for healing ceremonies, but sandpaintings can be made into permanent art that is acceptable to sell to non-Natives as long as Holy People are not portrayed. Various tribes prohibit photography of many sacred ceremonies, as used to be the case in many Western cultures. As several early photographers broke local laws, photographs of sensitive ceremonies are in circulation, but tribes prefer that they not be displayed. The same can be said for photographs or sketches of medicine bundle contents.
Two Mohawk leaders sued a museum, trying to remove a False Face Society mask or Ga:goh:sah from an exhibit because "it was a medicine object intended to be seen only by community members and that its public display would cause irreparable harm to the Mohawk." The Grand Council of the Haudenosaunee has ruled that such masks are not for sale or public display, nor are Corn Husk Society masks.
Tribes and individuals within tribes do not always agree about what is or is not appropriate to display to the public. Many institutions do not exhibit Ghost Dance regalia. At the request of tribal leaders, the Brooklyn Museum is among those that does not exhibit Plains warrior's shields or "artifacts imbued with a warrior's power". Many tribes do not want grave goods or items associated with burials, such as funerary urns, in museums, and many would like associated grave goods reinterred. The process is often facilitated within the United States under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA). In Canada, repatriation is negotiated between the tribes and museums or through Land Claims laws. In international situations, institutions are not always legally required to repatriate indigenous cultural items to their place of origin; some museums do so voluntarily, as with Yale University's decision to return 5,000 artifacts and human remains to Cusco, Peru.
Read more about this topic: Native American Art
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