Deb Fischer Questions Smithsonian Officials On Repatriation Of Native American Artifacts
Last week, Sen. Deb Fischer (R-NE) questioned experts on artifact repatriation during a Senate Rules Committee hearing.
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00:00I'll turn it over to Ranking Member Fischer.
00:03Thank you, Chairman Klobuchar.
00:06Secretary Bunch, in February, Nebraska's Winnebago Tribal Chairwoman and Council Members visited
00:12the National Museum of the American Indian's Cultural Resources Center, and they viewed
00:17some of their cultural artifacts at that time.
00:21They told me that it was a very powerful experience for them, and that your staff there was extremely
00:27helpful.
00:28Thank you very much.
00:30While they have not yet made an official repatriation request for the artifacts, if they do, what
00:37does that process look like?
00:39What does it entail for them?
00:41We have a very robust sense of repatriation.
00:45They will put a request in.
00:47The Smithsonian Museum of American Indian will look at it, will then sort of assess
00:53their basic questions.
00:55Is it a federally sponsored tribe, et cetera?
00:59Once those questions are answered, then what we do is bring people back to Washington to
01:03look at the particular artifacts they're interested in, and then make some final determinations.
01:08It's a process, but it's something that's fair and has worked very well with other tribes.
01:14I assume your answer will be yes.
01:17Do you work with the tribes in looking at the facilities that need to be in place where
01:26these artifacts are going to be stored to make sure that they're going to be preserved
01:33in a manner that has to be adhered to?
01:37Do you help with funding for that?
01:39Do they need to handle all that on their own?
01:42Where do we go on that?
01:43What we do is we want to make sure that both the tribe is satisfied, but that the artifacts
01:49are preserved.
01:51Therefore, we look to see what facilities they have, what capability they have.
01:56There are times that we will give direction that would be very helpful to do this.
02:00We unfortunately don't have the resources to actually help them, but I think the most
02:04important thing is to recognize that we want to be able to return what the communities
02:10really want, and that's really part of our goal.
02:13I know the chairwoman and the council members, of course, they want to make sure that they
02:21are looking not just at the needs of their current generation of the tribe, but of the
02:29generations that these artifacts belong to, and to make sure that they adhere to their
02:37beliefs and principles, and then, of course, meet the conditions that you would put on
02:42them as well.
02:43Mr. Secretary, I also understand that on March 24th, there was a food truck parked
02:50at 12th Street and Constitution Avenue in between the Smithsonian American History and
02:56the Natural History Museums.
02:58It caught fire.
02:59It was fully engulfed in flames when the firefighters arrived.
03:03The photos that I've seen from that incident were very alarming, to say the least.
03:10Are these food trucks a regular safety concern for you?
03:15I understand the convenience of the food trucks.
03:17I understand how it's important within the city of Washington, D.C. for the business
03:22that these food trucks create, but candidly, they really cause a problem for us because
03:27there are two levels of food trucks.
03:29There are those that have the permits, which really are in the right spots, and then those
03:33that just take whatever spot they can.
03:36It's become a problem on several levels.
03:38First of all, there's a problem of it really has an impact on my staff.
03:42There are trash issues.
03:43They're taking care of the rodents issues, but also the way that these trucks are parked
03:49is people then take advantage of the green space, and there's a lot of damage to the
03:55property of the Smithsonian.
03:56We're working with the city of Washington, D.C., the National Park Service, and others,
04:02but I want to be candid.
04:03We haven't resolved that yet.
04:05Luckily, the truck that burst on fire didn't affect any other trucks.
04:10The person wasn't severely hurt, but to me, it's a warning, and it's a warning that says
04:15that we want to be as fair as we can, but we've really got to protect the public and
04:21protect the Smithsonian.
04:22Well, let us know if we can do anything on that.
04:25I think it's a big problem.
04:28Your team recently completed 70% of the Smithsonian's Facilities Conditions Assessment Program using
04:35a new methodology designed to provide a more comprehensive assessment.
04:40What have you learned from that so far, and what's the significance of the new data that's
04:45been compiled from it, please?
04:48Well, it's part of my strategic sense of how we should address the deferred maintenance.
04:54Part of the issue for me was that we wanted to no longer look at deferred maintenance
04:58and capital as two different things, to really think about strategically how we put together
05:03those two entities so that, for example, when we did the National Air and Space Museum,
05:08we also took care of a lot of the backlog.
05:10So then the question was, do we have realistic numbers?
05:13So we put together a new process that said to us, here's ways to look at valuation, here's
05:18ways to understand and calculate inflation, and so the numbers are now high, but it's
05:24not the fact that there's new problems.
05:27It really is that the numbers allow us to have a more realistic way of doing it.
05:31So now what that allows me to do is to figure out where we should put our priorities, based
05:36on what's the greatest need, and what's the greatest need that allows us to continue to
05:40serve the public as effectively as we can.
05:43So this has really been part of an overarching strategy that allows us to really focus our
05:50resources, make the changes we want, and begin to deal with deferred maintenance.
05:54The reality is, for having buildings that have 29 million people that go through them
06:00for 364 days a year, deferred maintenance is probably one of the biggest challenges we face.
06:06Thank you.
06:08Thank you very much, Senator Fischer.
06:10We're joined by Senator Warner.