Anishinaabe community buys back birchbark scrolls at auction

It cost the Bay Mills Indian Community a substantial sum to buy back birchbark scrolls from a private collector but they are being returned to the Anishinaabe community in Michigan.

Whitney Gravele, president of Bay Mills, located near Sault Ste. Marie, said the Anishinaabe are record keepers, historically, and that's why it was imperative she see the return of these scrolls to her people.

"We are keepers of the stories, which is keepers of the teachings, keepers of the birchbark scrolls, and so it's almost our obligation as part of the Three Fires Confederacy to make sure that we're taking care of these items," she said.

Birchbark has many practical uses for the Anishinaabe, including canoes and basketry. Birchbark scrolls used Anishinaabe syllabics, geometric symbols and patterns to carry culture and history, including migration stories, on to the next generation.

The scrolls are believed to date to about 1900. They were being sold by an auction site for a private collector from Ohio.

Little is known about the scrolls. Gravele said several tribal members from the area recognized the provenance of the scrolls to be Michigan.

She said she could only make out certain details from the photographs of the scrolls posted on the website: one scroll was related to a migration story and another scroll was labelled Ghost Lodge.

Gravele said interest in the scrolls drove the price up and pre-bids started at $4,500 US when they typically start at a couple dollars, according to Tribal Historic Preservation Officers.

The final bidding price was $7,500 US and Bay Mills Community Indian Band paid a total of $10,500 US which included the buyer's premium, a processing fee and sales tax.

An online fundraiser to support the purchase of the scrolls raised $5,664 US but Gravele said because the final bidding price exceeded the funds raised, Bay Mills Indian Community paid the entire amount.

Brennen Ferguson, who is Tuscarora and works with the Haudenosaunee External Relations Committee, has overseen the repatriation of artifacts and sacred items to the Haudenosaunee from museums and galleries.

He said many items were taken from his people by hobbyists, collectors, and anthropologists through various means.

"In our communities, we have this understanding that this history did happen and it wasn't always coercive. Some of our people just sold these things," said Ferguson.

But Ferguson said grave robbing so affected the Haudenosaunee that traditionally they were discouraged from being buried with things of value such as beadwork and silver so their graves would not be desecrated. Ferguson said sacred items such as masks that are in the hands of private collectors are accounted for in ceremony because they are more than simply a collector's item.

Private collections not included in NAGPRA 

The U.S. Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act doesn't apply to items held in private collections, only items owned by institutes that receive federal funding.

But Gravele said according to U.S. law "objects of cultural patrimony are to be held by a tribal nation and so no individual, whether they be tribal or not, can actually go out and simply buy or sell a tribal nation's cultural patrimony."

She said the burden of proof rests with the nation to determine chain of ownership.

Gravele said Tribal Historic Preservation Officers contacted the auction house to see if the scrolls had a chain of ownership.

"They were told that that was not information the auction house needed to keep nor needed to provide," said Gravele.

In an email to CBC Indigenous, Cottone Auctions said it had been contacted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and was informed it was free to proceed with the sale.

"We did not own these but sold them on behalf of a well respected collector," the email said.

"We are pleased to hear they are heading home."

The FBI did not respond to a request for comment before time of publishing.

Gravele said someone from their nation will be personally transporting the scrolls to ensure their safe return to her community where they will be welcomed back through ceremony and authenticated. 

She said she thinks it will be emotional to have them back and to "share their story with the other tribes because we have had so much taken from us."

"I don't consider these just to be property of Bay Mills Indian community," she said.

"I consider them, you know, community cultural patrimony and so it is my intent that once the scrolls are returned, our tribal nation will share those with other tribal nations."