Page 16 - LIN JAN 2022 WEB FILES

chickee talk

Fighting For My Ancestors

by Tina Osceola
here is one thing that the COVID-19 ancestors, and have built policies that reinforced their efforts to
pandemic seemed to do for many… prevent their return (repatriation) to our tribal nation.
Tit seemed to hit the PAUSE button, The Ancestors were dug up from their places of rest and
allowing people to assess their lives and to removed to the shelves and desks of museums, libraries and
evaluate if they were on the right path. I am institutions all over the
definitely one of those people. At first, I sort world. Samples were
of felt I had been practicing for retirement cut from their flesh and
and I dove headfirst into the solitude of bone, and tests done
making beadwork while trying my hand at baking banana bread. without our permission
A few months of this routine, I quickly discovered that I needed or consultation. The
more in my life (and that I don’t really like banana bread). I had time has come to
time to look back on what truly gave me purpose and I was able return those ancestors
to quickly identify my volunteer work on my Tribe’s Repatriation to where they came
Committee. I knew that work gave me purpose. So I picked up from and allow them to
my phone and quickly emailed, Dr. Paul Backhouse, the Executive continue their journey.
Left to Right:
Officer of the Seminole Tribe of Florida’s Heritage, Environmental I have discovered
Dr. Paul Backhouse, Domonique DeBeaubien,
Resources Office, and asked him what he had for me! that many of our
Tina Marie Osceola, Councilman Andrew Bowers,
This was in July of 2021… At the time of this writing, a crisp nation’s most respected Anne Mullins, Quenton Cypress, Juan Cancel
November morning, it is four months later and I am sitting behind institutions do not
a desk at an office on the second floor of the Billy L. Cypress value our living culture. They are trying to erase our oral histories,
Building on the Big Cypress Seminole Indian Reservation. I our stories, our beliefs while at the same time asking us to validate
am the new Director of the Tribal Historic Preservation Office what we believe in. We are the only political group in the United
(THPO). We share a campus with our Sister Department, the States who are asked to validate who we are. So although this
Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Museum, the nation’s first tribally-governed movement began with our conflict with the Smithsonian National
museum to be accredited by the National Alliance of Museums. Museum of Natural History, we will be going to institutions all
For some of you that may sound familiar and it is because for over the country and world to get our people back.
more than seven years, I was the executive officer who oversaw the Although this is a snapshot of my job responsibilities. I have
THPO and museum, as well as a few other programs. Now, I am many other bureaucratic roles to fill, but it is the work that I do to
back, albeit in a different capacity, and LOVING it! defend our ancestors that gives me purpose. In my culture, we are
So what do I do? I work in a department that protects the responsible to and for our ancestors. We are also responsible for
Tribe’s cultural resources, defends Tribal Sovereignty while those grandchildren who haven’t even been born yet, whom I will
responding to federal and state agencies’ requests for consultation, never meet, but who will still refer to me as “Grandmother.” So
as required by law. That sounds like a who am I, some ask… I’m a 21st Century Native Warrior. Until
lot of bureaucratic red tape and it is, so our ancestors are at rest, we are still at war.
let me talk to you about one of my most
favorite projects, a movement called
#NoMoreStolenAncestors. It is an effort
to have our ancestors returned to the
ground. This movement was born out of
controversy with the Smithsonian National
Museum of Natural History.

They hold more than 1,800 of our
Tina Marie Osceola and Domonique DeBeaubien
in the US Capitol visiting Senator Marco Rubio’s
Office, February 2020. Courtesy of Seminole
Tribe of Florida
Billy L. Cypress Building, Big Cypress Seminole Indian Reservation

16 Life in Naples | January 2022