#Please Return The Artifacts!

When I got to look at all of these artifacts I was shocked and I thought it was kind of cool but I was kind of mad when I heard the lady say they found one artifact at a burial sight! I was upset buy that I feel like some of those natives should get there artifacts should be returned to the tribe of where they came from.. But I also feel like if they got them back there are some natives out there who will go and sell them and pawn them to get money.. I have seen some native stuff in pawn shops that some white people shouldn’t even know about! Some parts of our Lummi culture is sacred and people don’t know about. So I feel like maybe they shouldn’t give them to the owners but maybe the tribe our contact archives or something. I’m not saying they will go out and do that but there are people who do that.

2. I think some native cultures and college education can go together but not all because like I said not all traditions and our ways of life (Schelangen) should be exposed but some of it that people already know about can be taught. There can be Native History or Native Studies that talk about different tribes and what some of them do. Or take field trips to a tribe near them and talk to the elders about their culture.

3. My day was okay I felt kind of heavy hearted today for some reason. I have no idea why I felt like this I woke up okay and just after about an hour I start feeling not normal. Especially in the Museum because seeing all of those artifacts made me think of the people who had them before they were probably taken. When I was there I thought of the video that Rose showed us about the white people taking the kids from the parents and putting them in boarding schools. Then the other part of the video where it showed all the Native Americans that were piled up dead with other people surrounding them just starring at them. I kind of had a picture of that stuck in my head when I looked at all of those artifacts. Then after that I start thinking of the Sherman Alexie book The Absolutely True Diary of a part-time Indian where the teacher told Junior that he killed the indians. Not literally but he was killing the culture and he was hurting them and killing their culture but not actually killing them, and that he wanted Junior to leave that school because he didn’t want to do that to him. He wanted him to go out and explore and see the world and not stay there. So I think that all of that kind of sort of ties together into one thing. But that’s my day and I DO HOPE THAT PEOPLE WILL SEE THIS AND LOOK AT THE ARTIFACTS AND FIND SOME PEOPLE OR TRIBE THAT OWNS THESE AND HOPEFULLY THEY GET RETURNED!! Sincerely- MacKayla Sharon George (:

2 thoughts on “#Please Return The Artifacts!”

eshulter2238 says:

July 17, 2015 at 4:00 am

Things did get a bit deep yesterday with the talk and then today at the museum. If you do feel down again, we are always there to talk -Scott, myself, the other Elders, the mentors, even your peers.

alyssaswpitzer says:

July 19, 2015 at 3:00 am

you always know how to say things in the best word choice