May 05, 2004

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Palo Alto Online

Piecing together a sacred puzzle

by Bill D'Agostino

An "astonishing" collection of Native American artifacts, owned by the City of Palo Alto, was recently inspected and appraised. Like in the PBS television show "Antiques Roadshow," many are cheap trinkets -- but some are extremely rare and valuable treasures.

Two or three of the objects are something more significant -- sacred relics that are illegal for the city to keep in its possession or sell to others. The city will attempt to return those to the native tribes.

All told, there are 600 cultural objects inside the Palo Alto Junior Museum and Zoo. Until this year, the artifacts had never before been professionally assessed.

"We knew what had something amazing," museum Director Rachel Meyer said. "We didn't know what exactly" the objects were.

The items -- from dolls representing supernatural beings to elaborately designed baskets -- were given to the museum throughout its 70-year history.

Benjamin Benson, a Santa Rosa-based appraiser with expertise in Native American art, spent approximately 100 hours photographing each artifact and making preliminary notes. In April, Benson delivered a bound document with descriptions of each object, and their approximate worth.

The collection, according to the assessment, is valued at $364,145, and contains objects from around the country.

"The collection is astonishing in its scope," Benson said. He called it "one of the best" he's ever appraised located in a small museum.

The objects are currently being held in drawers held by two locks in one narrow room the local museum. The artifacts ranged from cheap fakes, valued at $15, to a "dramatically beautiful" dance robe, made of mountain goat wool. It's worth? Nearly $25,000.

The cataloguing was prompted, in part, by the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act prompted. The law, signed by the first President George Bush in 1990, requires that museums with federal funding return certain Native American objects -- especially sacred objects related to funerals -- to tribes.

Returning objects can be a tricky, and controversial, process. It can often be difficult to know exactly which tribes owned the object, for instance.

The museum initially went through the process of notifying tribes about its collection in the mid-1990's, as mandated by the act. During that time, though, the museum realized its list of objects was not complete or accurate.

The city is mandated to try and return two items in the collection. One such item is an 8-inch burial urn, from approximately 1100 AD, that contains human remains. Another is a box of quarter-inch "prehistoric" burial beads.

One additional item might have to be returned -- a small basket from the 1890s that was likely used by boys in "jump dance" ceremonies, where the tribes thanked the earth for their bounty and survival.

The museum will consult numerous tribes to find out if the basket needs to be returned. "Very likely that will need to go back," Benson said.

In total, there are around 600 pieces of Native American artifacts in the Palo Alto collection. There are decorated moccasins, rattles made of deer hide, Kachina dolls and bows. The most unusual object is probably a creepy looking reptile claw of unknown origin.

Many of the artifacts are from California, but around 70 items are from Eskimo tribes. A group is from Great Lakes' tribes. A few objects are from Africa, Asia and other regions of the world.

One of the downsides of having so many objects from around the country it that is won't be easy to make a cohesive display, Benson warned. "It is a challenge when you have so many pieces so widely dispersed in their origin."

The museum will likely gather more information about the objects from local tribes. The museum is still at least a year away from being able to use the objects for teaching about local history, according to officials.

Why are the objects from such a wide area?

"In Palo Alto, you have a population of residents who are well-educated and travel widely," Benson guessed.

Bill D'Agostino can be e-mailed at bdagostino@paweekly.com

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