"Clearly, we were not prepared for the amount of human remains."
March 1, 2019 9:17 AM Subscribe
Don Miller, a retired missionary in rural Indiana, kept a museum in his home. In 2014, a year before Miller died at 91, the FBI Art Crime team raided his home and discovered more than 40,000 items from North and South America, Asia, the Caribbean, Papua New Guinea, and China, including many human remains. The FBI, along with the Hidatsa, Mandan, and Arikatsa Nations, have spent years working to identify and return the artifacts. The CBC's article also provides audio from CBC Radio.
"It was his wish that we return these objects back to the rightful owners," Carpenter said. "So I think we can discern from that that, you know, he was trying to do the right thing at the end."Oh fuck off. This prick spent decades desecrating cultures he had no respect for, doing irreversible damage, and had to be raided by the fucking FBI a year before he died. I think we can discern from this that, you know, you've got your head up your arse, mate.
posted by howfar at 9:38 AM on March 1, 2019 [44 favorites]
This was very gentle to this guy. Ending it with the FBI agent's quote about "well he probably felt bad about it at the very end of his life" is such a pillowy letdown.
It would maybe have been nice to hear a little more from the indigenous advisors. I even would like to know more about the repatriation process - when they say that a group of objects are being returned "to China" what does that mean? Who is accepting the material? Where will it go? I mean, it's probably being accepted by a government agency, but I for one would be interested in an article that gave me more of that kind of detail.
posted by Lawn Beaver at 9:40 AM on March 1, 2019 [6 favorites]
It would maybe have been nice to hear a little more from the indigenous advisors. I even would like to know more about the repatriation process - when they say that a group of objects are being returned "to China" what does that mean? Who is accepting the material? Where will it go? I mean, it's probably being accepted by a government agency, but I for one would be interested in an article that gave me more of that kind of detail.
posted by Lawn Beaver at 9:40 AM on March 1, 2019 [6 favorites]
Jesus. The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act was passed in 1990, 30 years ago. This dude has absolutely no legal or ethical coverage. Yes, I know he's dead, but he should have done something 25 years ago.
posted by suelac at 9:46 AM on March 1, 2019 [8 favorites]
posted by suelac at 9:46 AM on March 1, 2019 [8 favorites]
The inert version of big game hunting...
posted by jim in austin at 9:50 AM on March 1, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by jim in austin at 9:50 AM on March 1, 2019 [1 favorite]
The whole missionary outlook is so twisted that of course it expressed itself in guys like this with "home museums." He already didn't respect these people, so it's no wonder that he literally helped himself to their bodies.
posted by fiercecupcake at 9:58 AM on March 1, 2019 [24 favorites]
posted by fiercecupcake at 9:58 AM on March 1, 2019 [24 favorites]
I remember an R.E. class of some sort back in the mid-90s, where the viley fundamentalist classroom assistant was allowed to show us a video of Cliff Richard making a series of grossly offensive statements about Haitian Vodou and praising the cultural genocide being propagated by missionaries in Haiti. I think it was those evil motherfuckers Tearfund. She was grossly offended when we criticised and mocked it, and I don't think she ever forgave us, which really solidified my contempt for all evangelism, its disgusting self-regard and its total opposition to any form of spiritual honesty.
posted by howfar at 10:15 AM on March 1, 2019 [9 favorites]
posted by howfar at 10:15 AM on March 1, 2019 [9 favorites]
Miller, 91, was a world-travelling Christian missionary, military vet and amateur archeologist who was known in the community for his museum-like collection of international treasures.
In a more honest public discourse, the words "Christian missionary" would be replaced with "cultural génocidaire."
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 10:23 AM on March 1, 2019 [22 favorites]
In a more honest public discourse, the words "Christian missionary" would be replaced with "cultural génocidaire."
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 10:23 AM on March 1, 2019 [22 favorites]
A similar story of theft and destruction: A South Lake Tahoe man was sentenced to a year and a day in prison earlier this week after stealing tens of thousands of Native American tribal artifacts from public lands near Lake Tahoe.
posted by Lexica at 10:46 AM on March 1, 2019 [3 favorites]
posted by Lexica at 10:46 AM on March 1, 2019 [3 favorites]
How did this guy die at 91 and not years earlier from a poltergeist related incident? Did all the angry spirits get in each other's way, like some spectral three-stooges routine?
posted by es_de_bah at 10:54 AM on March 1, 2019 [11 favorites]
posted by es_de_bah at 10:54 AM on March 1, 2019 [11 favorites]
I'm sure he's enjoying a long series of spectacularly horrible afterlives.
posted by praemunire at 10:56 AM on March 1, 2019 [4 favorites]
posted by praemunire at 10:56 AM on March 1, 2019 [4 favorites]
I remember as a kid going to museums and seeing skulls, bones, etc. presented as artifacts, not really any different from arrowheads or pottery. And I also didn't think about that critically. And then I first read something...and this would have been at least 25 years ago, probably more...pointing out that there was something wrong about treating the remains of indigenous people as no different from a piece of pottery, and that many of these remains in museums were not very ancient and in fact their tribes/descendants were known.
And that even when they weren't, it was disrespectful to treat them as souvenirs and especially remove them from the countries they were from without permission.
And I just stared into space for a few minutes and thought "Oh. Yeah. That makes sense. I wouldn't want anyone to do that to my great-grandma's remains, I can see why this upsets people!" And that was all it took to understand it.
This was not info I was seeking out, I had no anthropologist friends or background, I was a random person, and I got it. This guy has no excuse.
posted by emjaybee at 11:04 AM on March 1, 2019 [12 favorites]
And that even when they weren't, it was disrespectful to treat them as souvenirs and especially remove them from the countries they were from without permission.
And I just stared into space for a few minutes and thought "Oh. Yeah. That makes sense. I wouldn't want anyone to do that to my great-grandma's remains, I can see why this upsets people!" And that was all it took to understand it.
This was not info I was seeking out, I had no anthropologist friends or background, I was a random person, and I got it. This guy has no excuse.
posted by emjaybee at 11:04 AM on March 1, 2019 [12 favorites]
How tactful of the article to refer to this guy as an 'amateur archaeologist' and not as a grave robber, looter and thief.
I imagine he was better with a wallet than a trowel, so lets add black-market trafficker to his list of sins.
posted by Think_Long at 11:56 AM on March 1, 2019 [3 favorites]
I imagine he was better with a wallet than a trowel, so lets add black-market trafficker to his list of sins.
posted by Think_Long at 11:56 AM on March 1, 2019 [3 favorites]
To play devil's advocate, I don't give a fuck about how my remains are dealt with, and it's nice that this man gathered pieces of historical interest into one close, albeit undignified space. The thing that bugs me is that no one (even now) is suggesting we return these pieces to or purchase these pieces from the cultures they were stolen from. The UK has a whole fucking department devoted to placing unclaimed inheritance rightly. Shouldn't there be a body that catalogs things like this, and then strives to find the proper home?
posted by es_de_bah at 3:19 PM on March 1, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by es_de_bah at 3:19 PM on March 1, 2019 [1 favorite]
The thing that bugs me is that no one (even now) is suggesting we return these pieces to or purchase these pieces from the cultures they were stolen from.
Isn't that what this article is about?
posted by Think_Long at 3:32 PM on March 1, 2019 [3 favorites]
Isn't that what this article is about?
posted by Think_Long at 3:32 PM on March 1, 2019 [3 favorites]
The thing about 'gathering objects together' is that for an archeological find, most of the value lies in the location and context of the object, not necessarily in the object itself. if you find a stone tool and you let it lie, an archeologist can use location clues to learn when it was made, who it may have been used by, what it was used for, and an absolute host of other pieces of information that contribute to the preservation and expansion of knowledge about the item. if you find a stone tool and you take it away from this context, an archeologist can confirm that it's probably a stone tool.
This guy didn't just take stuff and conveniently gather it together, he destroyed the archeological context of anything he took. With luck he kept good records, but nothing beats leaving the stuff in the ground for the descendants of the people who made them to learn from, and for actual scientists to document.
And let's not forget the whole 'human remains as trophies' thing.
posted by DSime at 4:41 PM on March 1, 2019 [17 favorites]
This guy didn't just take stuff and conveniently gather it together, he destroyed the archeological context of anything he took. With luck he kept good records, but nothing beats leaving the stuff in the ground for the descendants of the people who made them to learn from, and for actual scientists to document.
And let's not forget the whole 'human remains as trophies' thing.
posted by DSime at 4:41 PM on March 1, 2019 [17 favorites]
So, my husband oversaw this kind of thing for the state of Illinois for five years (through the state historic preservation agency, which is the joint state-federal funded agency responsible for things like NAGPRA; as the lawyer responsible for compliance with these laws and later as the acting agency head). We called it "surprise human remains" and it happens more often than you might think! Like, "Ugh, sorry I was home late tonight, Kraft is expanding its headquarters and there was a surprise human remains situation when they excavated, I had to walk their lawyer through the legal process." That's a pretty normal example, but OH MY GOD you have no idea the crazy-ass shit people will do with human remains, like freelance exhume a family member or just randomly pick up bones and take them home, until 6 months later they get worried maybe it was a murder victim and they should call the cops, and then the cops would call my husband and be like, "uh......"
"It would maybe have been nice to hear a little more from the indigenous advisors."
So, Indiana has a decent relationship with the various Native American groups it deals with, and states tend to be a little bit cagey about this kind of thing. It can be super, super touchy -- and, counterintuitively, is easier in states where Native "removal" was nearly complete, because they missed the last 150 years of land disputes and similar; states like Indiana and Illinois are eager to see artifacts returned and desperately want Native American imprimatur for their archaeological sites (the best of which tend to be Mississippian, who collapsed slightly before European contact so don't clearly "belong" to any extant tribal groups); but in states like Washington and Oregon and New Mexico and Oklahoma, where there are still tribal claims to land, the relationship between state government and Native American tribes can be a LOT more contentious and combative. States like Indiana step carefully to keep those good relationships intact and cooperative. So Indiana and the FBI are probably low-keying it here because maintaining good relationships with tribal leaders is super important, and minimizing sensationalistic publicity that details specific tribal artifacts/human remains is really helpful in promoting those good relationships. If the Native American leaders want to talk about specifics, they will talk about it, and Indiana will provide quotes for their press release. But it will almost never go the other way around. Indiana will detail their work in state reports, and a summary will probably be published in a state archaeological journal, and possibly some research papers will make their way into scholarly journals, but in general state-employed archaeologists will be hesitant to publish (beyond basic state reports) without the blessing of the indigenous peoples involved.
" I even would like to know more about the repatriation process - when they say that a group of objects are being returned "to China" what does that mean? Who is accepting the material? Where will it go? I mean, it's probably being accepted by a government agency, but I for one would be interested in an article that gave me more of that kind of detail."
I can ask my husband when he's awake, but generally there are counterparts in other countries -- it might be a national museum, it might be a national cultural cabinet ministry -- and US and Indiana authorities will interface with their counterparts in the receiving country, and they'll write up various contracts or MOUs, and the artifacts will be transported by experts. This is actually relatively routine, in that museums and universities lend things internationally ALL THE TIME, and the local authorities responsible for antiquities and human remains will have a LOT of experience with this kind of transfer from museum shows, and it's not very different in terms of the practicalities. (My husband was overseeing Illinois during the sesquicentennial of the Civil War, sooooooo much Lincolniana being loaned out nationally and internationally.) Depending on the indigenous group, or the successor indigenous group, or the national government in question, they may even send a person to accompany the remains; for example, archaeological surveys are always conducted during interstate highway construction in the US (it's the law), and some bones that were determined to be of Native American origin were found during one in Illinois not that long ago. Based on the age of the remains they belonged to no extant tribes, but one of three possible successor tribes was concerned the remains might be an ancestor, so they sent a religious leader, who dressed in regalia and sang while the remains were excavated, and rode in the van with them, singing to them and playing a sacred drum to keep the spirit calm during the disturbance of the remains, until they were reinterred in the state facility that manages that sort of skeletal remains, where he performed a ceremony to lay them back to rest. (The archaeologists were flatly delighted, since Illinois remains never get that much attention, since they're mostly Mississippian and therefore not of interest to extant tribes.) Very similar to how, when Richard III's remains were discovered in the carpark in the UK, they had a priest sit with the bones during the viewing for journalists, to show respect and religious deference. Anyway, any indigenous or national groups with that kind of concern about any remains or artifacts would be accommodated, and transfer arranged with any and all appropriate ceremonies and attendants.
Final totally irrelevant note, my husband had a colleague who oversaw all the surprise human remains (over 100 years old) in the state (if they're under 100 years old, they're a police matter, not an archaeological one), and her business card and e-mail signature said:
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 9:01 PM on March 1, 2019 [31 favorites]
"It would maybe have been nice to hear a little more from the indigenous advisors."
So, Indiana has a decent relationship with the various Native American groups it deals with, and states tend to be a little bit cagey about this kind of thing. It can be super, super touchy -- and, counterintuitively, is easier in states where Native "removal" was nearly complete, because they missed the last 150 years of land disputes and similar; states like Indiana and Illinois are eager to see artifacts returned and desperately want Native American imprimatur for their archaeological sites (the best of which tend to be Mississippian, who collapsed slightly before European contact so don't clearly "belong" to any extant tribal groups); but in states like Washington and Oregon and New Mexico and Oklahoma, where there are still tribal claims to land, the relationship between state government and Native American tribes can be a LOT more contentious and combative. States like Indiana step carefully to keep those good relationships intact and cooperative. So Indiana and the FBI are probably low-keying it here because maintaining good relationships with tribal leaders is super important, and minimizing sensationalistic publicity that details specific tribal artifacts/human remains is really helpful in promoting those good relationships. If the Native American leaders want to talk about specifics, they will talk about it, and Indiana will provide quotes for their press release. But it will almost never go the other way around. Indiana will detail their work in state reports, and a summary will probably be published in a state archaeological journal, and possibly some research papers will make their way into scholarly journals, but in general state-employed archaeologists will be hesitant to publish (beyond basic state reports) without the blessing of the indigenous peoples involved.
" I even would like to know more about the repatriation process - when they say that a group of objects are being returned "to China" what does that mean? Who is accepting the material? Where will it go? I mean, it's probably being accepted by a government agency, but I for one would be interested in an article that gave me more of that kind of detail."
I can ask my husband when he's awake, but generally there are counterparts in other countries -- it might be a national museum, it might be a national cultural cabinet ministry -- and US and Indiana authorities will interface with their counterparts in the receiving country, and they'll write up various contracts or MOUs, and the artifacts will be transported by experts. This is actually relatively routine, in that museums and universities lend things internationally ALL THE TIME, and the local authorities responsible for antiquities and human remains will have a LOT of experience with this kind of transfer from museum shows, and it's not very different in terms of the practicalities. (My husband was overseeing Illinois during the sesquicentennial of the Civil War, sooooooo much Lincolniana being loaned out nationally and internationally.) Depending on the indigenous group, or the successor indigenous group, or the national government in question, they may even send a person to accompany the remains; for example, archaeological surveys are always conducted during interstate highway construction in the US (it's the law), and some bones that were determined to be of Native American origin were found during one in Illinois not that long ago. Based on the age of the remains they belonged to no extant tribes, but one of three possible successor tribes was concerned the remains might be an ancestor, so they sent a religious leader, who dressed in regalia and sang while the remains were excavated, and rode in the van with them, singing to them and playing a sacred drum to keep the spirit calm during the disturbance of the remains, until they were reinterred in the state facility that manages that sort of skeletal remains, where he performed a ceremony to lay them back to rest. (The archaeologists were flatly delighted, since Illinois remains never get that much attention, since they're mostly Mississippian and therefore not of interest to extant tribes.) Very similar to how, when Richard III's remains were discovered in the carpark in the UK, they had a priest sit with the bones during the viewing for journalists, to show respect and religious deference. Anyway, any indigenous or national groups with that kind of concern about any remains or artifacts would be accommodated, and transfer arranged with any and all appropriate ceremonies and attendants.
Final totally irrelevant note, my husband had a colleague who oversaw all the surprise human remains (over 100 years old) in the state (if they're under 100 years old, they're a police matter, not an archaeological one), and her business card and e-mail signature said:
Jane SmithAnd I found this ceaselessly delightful because it wasn't clear whether she was in charge of human skeletal remains or whether she personally WAS the human skeletal remains. (I met her, she was not an animate skeleton, I was sad.)
Human Skeletal Remains
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 9:01 PM on March 1, 2019 [31 favorites]
I ran a repatriation program for a major federal agency for 3 years. I have stories. It's all terribly complicated (and political).
posted by suelac at 10:24 PM on March 1, 2019 [4 favorites]
posted by suelac at 10:24 PM on March 1, 2019 [4 favorites]
I supposed if you want other people like this to voluntarily come out of the woodwork and admit they have these things, rather than keep them hidden until death or destroy them, you have to publicly make it seem like no big deal to do so...
posted by davejay at 11:32 PM on March 1, 2019
posted by davejay at 11:32 PM on March 1, 2019
'amateur archaeologist'
My friend runs a museum founded by a guy like this! (The NMAI was also started on this kind of stolen collection but on a huger scale.) Not a missionary, just a rich guy who would do illegal digs and buy artefacts from auctions and hoard tens of thousands of them in his home until he opened up the museum. Pretty sure there were human remains, also. After this guy died, the woman working with him at the time went through a lot of work trying to figure out anything about all these context-less artefacts to return what she could. This was just a dinky museum in a small town, but the artefacts left in the museum seriously spanned the globe. It was extremely .......... eye-opening when my friend told me about this guy and then, when I found out about the NMAI's history, seeing that this wasn't even an uncommon thing white people were doing.
posted by gaybobbie at 7:40 AM on March 2, 2019 [1 favorite]
My friend runs a museum founded by a guy like this! (The NMAI was also started on this kind of stolen collection but on a huger scale.) Not a missionary, just a rich guy who would do illegal digs and buy artefacts from auctions and hoard tens of thousands of them in his home until he opened up the museum. Pretty sure there were human remains, also. After this guy died, the woman working with him at the time went through a lot of work trying to figure out anything about all these context-less artefacts to return what she could. This was just a dinky museum in a small town, but the artefacts left in the museum seriously spanned the globe. It was extremely .......... eye-opening when my friend told me about this guy and then, when I found out about the NMAI's history, seeing that this wasn't even an uncommon thing white people were doing.
posted by gaybobbie at 7:40 AM on March 2, 2019 [1 favorite]
He kept the remains of human beings like souvenirs. I am just... I keep thinking I can't be surprised by the depths humanity can sink to, and then something like this comes along.
posted by sarcasticah at 11:54 AM on March 2, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by sarcasticah at 11:54 AM on March 2, 2019 [1 favorite]
Eyebrows McGee, thank you for the infinitely more interesting discussion than this article was. I guess I just want more from journalism than journalism wants to give me, lately.
I was living in Berkeley while some construction around a particular shell mound turned up surprise human remains, and the discussion was ongoing in the local news. The Ohlone representative who came to oversee the removal of the remains was named in the media and was willing to discuss - I guess it's more or less sensitive depending on the locale and the specific situation.
posted by Lawn Beaver at 6:11 AM on March 4, 2019
I was living in Berkeley while some construction around a particular shell mound turned up surprise human remains, and the discussion was ongoing in the local news. The Ohlone representative who came to oversee the removal of the remains was named in the media and was willing to discuss - I guess it's more or less sensitive depending on the locale and the specific situation.
posted by Lawn Beaver at 6:11 AM on March 4, 2019
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posted by DSime at 9:32 AM on March 1, 2019 [36 favorites]