Deb Fischer Questions Smithsonian Officials On Repatriation Of Native American Artifacts

2 months ago

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.

Deb Fischer Questions Smithsonian Officials On Repatriation Of Native American Artifacts

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