by Glenn Taylor
Northern News Services

INUVIK (Aug 15/97) - A dozen or so Inuvialuit skeletons, quietly collecting dust for more than a century at the University of Iowa, finally returned home last month.

The bones were collected by Iowa University student Frank Russell in 1892 while he was studying native people in the area. While touring Herschel Island and Stokes, Russell collected bones from shallow graves for later study. He was interested in the physical characteristics of the Inuvialuit.

Times, and politics, have changed. Russell's curiosity may be viewed today by some as a disrespectful desecration of the honor of those individuals who had been laid to rest by their people.

Thanks to the Native Graves Protection Act, which was passed in the United States about two years ago, the university was directed by law to give the bones over to the Canadian Museum of Civilization. The museum then delivered the bones last year to the Yukon territorial government, which has jurisdiction over Herschel Island territorial park.

The Inuvialuit Regional Corporation was informed about the existence of the bones last year, and asked by the Yukon government what should be done about them. Aklavik elders debated the issue, and gave their answer: bring them home.

Now that the bones are back in Inuvik, the question of what to do with them next is still being debated. IRC chair Nellie Cournoyea and heritage director Cathy Cockney were both out of town, and could not be reached by press time.

"Years have gone by and much has changed in the world, especially thoughts on the appropriateness of keeping the bones at the university," said Jeff Hunston, director of heritage for the Yukon Department of Tourism.

Hunston said possible solutions for the bones would be to rebury them at Herschel Island. A problem is that the two existing cemeteries there are currently deteriorating due to shifting permafrost. The question of what to do to preserve the grave sites is a whole other question for debate, he said.

"The question is, what do we do with the cemeteries without spending a huge amount of money, and while being respectful of what the Inuvialuit want done?" he said.

The heritage of Russell's work can still be found at the Prince of Wales Museum in Yellowknife, where a caribou skin tent he collected from the period is currently on display. He also wrote a book on his works in 1898 entitled Exploration in the Far North.