[Aztlan] Scalps online

[Mario Cabrejos]

Scalps online
BY TREVOR MAXWELL
Portland Press Herald Kennebec Journal & Morning Sentinel 
09/03/2009
http://kennebecjournal.mainetoday.com/news/local/6804465.html

PORTLAND -- The FBI is investigating recent posts on craigslist that offered
to sell "Maine Indian scalps" to "white people only," according to court
documents and the leader of the Penobscot Indian Nation, who reported the
situation to state and federal officials.

The person who posted the items claimed to have six scalps and related
artifacts that were obtained by bounty hunters in the 1700s and came into
his possession through a private family collection.

The posts included a Maine cell phone number and the contact name "Whitely
Bradford." The phone was not accepting calls this week, and the posts are no
longer accessible on craigslist, a popular Web site that allows people to
sell, buy and trade goods and services.

It is unclear whether the scalps exist, or whether the person who posted the
ad was trying to carry out an elaborate hoax. But based on dates and other
details in the posts, federal investigators and Penobscot leaders have
proceeded under the assumption that they are legitimate.

"The big thing for us is to be able to deal with those remains properly,"
said Penobscot Chief Kirk Francis. "It is a hard period of time to look back
on anyway. To have the tribe reminded of that in such a blatant fashion, and
then trying to have someone profit on it, that just doesn't sit well.

"To have parts of dead Native people and to be selling them, this obviously
is not acceptable," Francis said.

The posts were brought to Francis' attention by an anonymous e-mail. After
reviewing them with members of the Penobscot Tribal Historic Preservation
Office, Francis reported them to the U.S. Department of Justice and the
state Attorney General's Office.

Last month, the FBI obtained e-mails and other computer evidence affiliated
with two Yahoo e-mail addresses that were linked to craigslist posts on June
4 and June 6.

In a five-page affidavit filed in U.S. District Court in Portland, FBI
Special Agent James Lechner said the posts gave him probable cause to
investigate a possible violation of federal law: trafficking in Native
American remains.

That specific offense was created in 1990 as part of the federal Native
American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, and is punishable by as
much as one year in prison.

Todd DiFede, the FBI's supervisory agent in Maine, said Wednesday that he
could not comment on an ongoing investigation. Halsey Frank, an assistant
U.S. attorney who has been involved with the case, also declined to comment.

Francis said he and other tribal leaders initially doubted the craigslist
posts.

"We said, 'Well, maybe someone is just trying to get our hair up here,'" he
said. "It started to become more and more credible."

The posts claim that the scalps were obtained for bounties between 1700 and
1760.

Francis said that during that time, British colonists offered bounties for
the capture or killing of Penobscot men, women and children. One formal
proclamation was made in 1755 by Spencer Phips, the lieutenant governor of
the Province of Massachusetts Bay.

If the scalps do exist, Francis said, he will do whatever it takes to
retrieve them and provide a proper burial on Penobscot land. Francis said he
is confident that the FBI investigation will uncover the truth.

"It has been three months, so of course we would like things to be moving a
lot quicker," he said. "At this point, we are getting a little impatient,
but we are also trying to let them focus on what they need to do.

"This really is on a whole new level," Francis said. "Something like this is
not representative of Maine. It has no place here."

One craigslist post appeared on June 4, offering "a rare collection of
museum quality Maine Indian scalps. Included is two squaws, two children and
two 'noble indigenous savages.'"

The post said the items -- including "beads, tattoos and leather tags to
identify the sex and approximate age" -- were in shadow boxes and were part
of a "private Fesseden museum."

"There was a recent death in the ownership," the post said. "The family were
among Maine's earliest settlers and will discriminate in selling to white
people only."

Another post appeared on June 6, with much of the same information. It said
the scalps were from the "Fesseden-Avery collection which was a privately
owned museum.

Julia Clark, collections manager at the Abbe Museum in Bar Harbor, said
private collections of Native items do exist in Maine but she has never
heard of anyone possessing human remains.

She said she has never heard of a "Fesseden" or "Fesseden-Avery" collection.
Clark said there are no known examples in New England of Native American
scalps preserved from the era of bounty hunting.

The Abbe Museum offers exhibitions and programs on Maine's Wabanaki
heritage. The Wabanaki people include Maine's four Indian tribes: Maliseet,
Micmac, Penobscot and Passamaquoddy.

Clark does not believe that anyone has ever been prosecuted in Maine for
trafficking in Native American artifacts or remains. She said the posts
deserve the full attention of law enforcement agencies, even if they turn
out to be a hoax.

"The cultural insensitivity in the posts, that alone is distressing," Clark
said.

John Bear Mitchell said it is hard for him to understand how human remains
could be so devalued. Mitchell is a member of the Penobscot Nation who
teaches at the University of Maine and is associate director of the school's
Wabanaki Center.

"Even if it is hair, with a little bit of flesh on it, that is human
remains. That could be one of our ancestors," Mitchell said. "This doesn't
just affect people in the past. It affects us today, people who are living."

A few years ago, it came to Mitchell's attention that someone was trying to
sell a "Penobscot Indian skull" on eBay. He helped inform Penobscot leaders,
who contacted representatives of the Internet auction site. The posting was
immediately removed.

"Things that are taken from graves, that is bad enough because those are
human objects," Mitchell said. "But to take a scalp or a skull, to say this
was on our family shelf for 100 years and we don't have use for it anymore.
To turn them into money, that is perversion."