Tree Town Singers Paul Shananaquet of Hopkins, Mich., U-M student Frank Bartley III of Columbus Township and Joe Reilly of Ann Arbor perform a song in Regents Plaza before the Board of Regents meeting. Joseph Sowmick, a member of the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe of Michigan, and representatives of other Michigan tribes attended the March 20 meeting, asking the University to return 1,428 ancestral remains and associated funerary objects. “We are the direct descendents of the ancestors who lived on this land before your arrival, and we are united on this issue,” Sowmick said. “These individuals are related to us, the present day Anishinaabek — the Original People of Michigan.” The Michigan Anishinaabek Cultural Preservation Alliance seeks disposition of all unaffiliated Anishinaabek remains from the Museum of Anthropology. In recent years, the University has returned remains and funerary objects that are identifiable to the appropriate tribes, but it does not have the legal authority to return those in question because they are unidentifiable, Vice President for Research Stephen Forrest wrote in a Jan. 11 letter to Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe of Michigan Chief Fred Cantu Jr. Forrest said the University is willing and interested in maintaining a dialogue with Michigan tribes about the unidentified remains. (Photo by Jillian Bogater)
