Dear Barbara Kerr,

It has recently come to the attention of Massachusetts residents that the Medford Public Library intends to auction off a collection of nineteenth-century Pacific Northwest native artifacts on December 1 using the Boston auction house Skinner Auctioneers and Appraisers. The undersigned implore you to reconsider this decision.

Selling these sacred items, which include a cedar totem pole, shaman’s masks, and shaman’s rattles, will at best break the bond of the gifting process under which the items may have passed into settlers’ hands. Selling these artifacts for short-term profit is morally reprehensible and will exemplify the lack of respect that American governmental institutions have shown towards American Indian nations both in past history and today. We encourage you to seek alternate avenues of funding for our local library.

Under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990 (NAGPRA), as a public institution receiving federal funding, the Medford Public Library must by law contact the nations from which these artifacts originated and offer repatriation. In particular NAGPRA protects unlawfully obtained cultural items, and especially given that circumstances of these items’ accession by the Medford Public Library is unclear, we encourage you to repatriate them using the guidelines set forth very clearly by NAGPRA. Failing that, we strongly encourage you to consider stewardship by a national museum such as the Museum of Anthropology in Vancouver which operates with a deep respect for native cultures.

 Many of us are also writing to our state and U.S. representatives about this issue.