Our alarm woke us up so that we would reach the lobby of the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History by 9:00AM to meet Laurie. She was waiting for us and took us to her office where two of her colleuges, Adrienne Kaeppler - expert on Polynesian culture and Captain Cook - and Bill Billeck - expert on anthropology and repatriation - where waiting with the Patu casts in their case, the glass door removed. We chatted with the anthropologists, discussing the importance of the item and it's repatriation back to the Umatilla Tribe. Ms. Kaeppler stated it was the most important specimen in all of Smithsonian's Polynesian collection. It was brass and made in England to accompany Captain Cook on his 2nd voyage to the Pacific. The Patus ended up not going on the 2nd journey but instead went on his 3rd voyage. It is believed that some were traded in New Zealand but Captain Cook next went to Alaska where this one was likely traded to the natives. It was eventually traded down through Canada and ended up in a grave of a Umatilla Native. My great great great grandmother, Helen Kenzie, lived in the area of the Umatilla tribe and was an avid collector. She apparently stole this peice from a grave nearby. In the 1890's she offered to sell her entire collection to the Smithsonian. They only bought two peices: the brass Patu and a stone effigy. With the repatriation act of 1990, items stolen from graves were returned to their tribe. The stone effigy was not from of a grave site so the Smithsonian kept it but Helen Kenzie documented that the Patu was taken from a grave so it was given back to the Umatilla tribe about 15 years ago where it is kept safe.
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| National Museum of Natural History |
After seeing the Patu, Laurie brought us on the shuttle to the curation facility, a warehouse filled with the majority of their collection. She showed us the stone effigy own by my ancestor. They're not sure what it's a carving of or what it was used for but there is a faint carving of a face on the stone. She showed us peices from other excavations along Powder River. Then she showed us peices from around the warehouse including a whole seat-gut suit from Alaksa, beaded baby baskets, headdresses, gorgeous pottery, 1000 year old sandals and corn, wooden paddles from the Northwest, gorgeous woven reed baskets with bright feathers incorporated into weaving from northern California, peices from the Perry expedition to Japan when the country first opened to the rest of the world. It was such an amazing experience. Laurie showed us around until 12:30pm, spending her entire Monday morning showing us around. It was amazing, definitely once in a lifetime experience!
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| Bill Billeck, Laurie Burgess, Adrienne Kaeppler, and the patu casts |
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| Beautiful pottery at the curation facility |
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| Beautiful woven baskets with feathers woven into them |
Back at the museum, we said our goodbyes to Laurie and grabbed lunch at the cafeteria before proceeding to see the museum itself. They recently opened a new exhibit featuring the best specimens from all the different departments of the Museum of Natural History. It was fun to see. Then we saw the mummies, the dinosaur bones, and the massive geology and gemstone exhibit. It was an incredible collection! We finished around 4:00pm. We were considering going to the National Geographic museum but would only have 1.5 hours, plus we were tired from staying up so late last night and getting up early, not to mention our early, early departure tomorrow to catch our plane in Philadelphia. So we went home to rest and start packing. After freshing up at the apartment, we went to dinner at a nearby gourmet pizza place with an excellent beer and cider list. Back to the room to relax, watch the Olympics, and get ready for tomorrow's long day of travel (6:00am east coast time to 11:00pm west coast time!!) It was a fantastic trip, very memorable. We hit about 2 museums a day for five days straight and there were more that I would have gone to if I had more time. But I got to see the museums I wanted to see the most so very happy with how this trip went!
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