NORSEC Coordinated Work with Northern Native Communities.

Since 1993, Kirk Dombrowski has been working with the Haida Tribe of Alaska (through the Hydaburg Cooperative Association -- the governing tribal body), on issues of culture history and cultural rights. Since 1995, Dr. Dombrowski has been a repatriation advisor for the HCA, working with tribal authorities to obtain information on items of cultural heritage and human remains taken by non-Natives over the past 150 years. A portion of this work was supported by the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research in the form of a dissertation research grant for 1995-6, and continued work in the cultural history of the North Pacific is being supported this summer by a Mellon Fellowship at the Library of the American Philosophical Society.

Because New York City was, at the turn-of-the-century, the world-wide center for the collecting of indigenous art from northwestern Canada and Alaska, much Native concern has centered around collections still held by New York Cultural Institutions. For this reason, many Alaska Native communities desire some form of sympathetic, cooperative institution in New York City that is familiar with their concerns. In this way, a Northern Studies and Education Center may form a verbal bridge between concerned northern Native communities and New York City. As a point of information exchange, a Northern Studies Center could facilitate dialogue between Native groups and museums/collectors/cultural institutions here in New York, between Native groups from across Northern Canada and Alaska with similar concerns, and finally, between academics of different disciplines -- such as art history, history, archaeology, and cultural anthropology -- that are interested in Native cultural rights. The Center would perform a valuable cooperative service simply by providing a contact point and conduit for information to people outside of New York. Such a service would encourage an ongoing cooperative relationship between northern Native communities and researchers from CUNY, encouraging students interested in northern communities or issues (and potentially, students from these same communities) to pursue their studies at the GSUC.