And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
Description: Indian Artifacts Auctioned Off
Header: Indian Artifacts Auctioned Off
Trailer: CIS:NSW-5328
AP 15-Mar-1999 5:14 EST REF5328
By JOHN McELHENNY
Associated Press Writer
MONROE, Conn. (AP) -- As auction-goers bid thousands of dollars for
artifacts created long ago by members of her Schaghticokes Indian tribe,
Paulette Crone-Morange's heart sank.
Among the pieces on sale from a private collection: a basket woven in
the 1800s by Harry Harris, her great-grandfather. Ms. Crone-Morange watched
helplessly as it was sold to another bidder -- she couldn't afford it.
"We just don't have the money to purchase these things back," Ms.
Crone-Morange said last week.
Poor in comparison to tribes like the Mohegans or Pequots, the
Schaghticokes are hard-pressed to buy artifacts when they are sold from
private collections. A recent increase in demand for Native American works
has added to the problem.
The items auctioned off along with Ms. Crone-Morange's family basket
came from the collection of the late Lyent Russell, a Yale professor who'd
amassed hundreds of Native American artifacts prior to his death last year.
His entire collection netted over $100,000 at the November auction.
Ms. Crone-Morange, who traces her Schaghticoke heritage to 1687, did
manage to buy six other baskets -- spending $1,700 of her own money. But
five others were bid out of her price range and purchased by dealers and
private collectors.
Watching collectors push the bidding up, Ms. Crone-Morange recalled her
growing frustration. "I'm getting angry, saying, 'But these mean nothing to
you. This is our family,"' she said.
Chief Richard Velky, head of the 300-member tribe which has its offices
in a small building in Monroe, said outsiders buying tribal artifacts
amounted to "purchasing bits and pieces of our soul."
"If it was a crucifix, a torah scroll or a tombstone, I doubt these
items would fall under an auctioneer's hammer," he said.
Hoping to retrieve other lost artifacts, Schaghticoke tribal officials
have asked people who own baskets or other tribal items to donate them to a
future Schaghticoke museum, or at least to give the tribe first chance to
buy them.
"This is our heritage. We have more interest in it than the dollars and
cents the white man puts on it," Velky said.
Tribal members said they tried to contact Russell's daughter after his
death to ask if she would donate or sell them the 11 Schaghticoke baskets
in her father's collection. They say she never responded.
But Russell's daughter, Carol Knight, said the tribe offered no money.
"My feeling is that my father bought them. He paid money for them," she
said.
Knight said the tribal member who asked her to donate the baskets
claimed they were sacred tribal objects.
"But sacred objects, to me, are used in burial or religious activities,"
Knight said. "These were not that. These were made for sale."
Copyright 1999. The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
The information contained in the AP news report may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written
authority of The Associated Press.
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Unenh onhwa' Awayaton
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