By, With, and For

New Moon of the Buffalo I by Linda Lomahaftewa (Hopi/Choctaw). Courtesy of the IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts

In her treatise Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples, Maori scholar Linda Tuhiwai Smith observes that “‘research’ is inextricably linked to European imperialism and colonialism.” She goes on to state that the word itself is “probably one of the dirtiest words in the Indigenous world’s vocabulary,” adding, “it stirs up silence, it conjures up bad memories, it raises a smile that is knowing and distrustful. It is so powerful that Indigenous people even write poetry about research.” Perhaps, nowhere is this sordid history of “research” and Indigenous peoples more evident than in the life and work of American physician Dr. Samuel George Morton.

A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania in 1820, Morton began his career working as a physician before taking a position as a professor of anatomy at the Pennsylvania Medical College in Philadelphia. He was especially interested in human racial categorizations and the supposed differences between them. In order to pursue this line of study, Morton went straight for the head, literally, focusing his research on collecting and measuring human crania from all over the world, but with a focus on the Indigenous peoples of North and South America. Within just a few years, Morton had acquired 100 skulls, which grew to nearly 1,000 at the time of his death in 1851. It was the largest cranial collection in the world and Morton cared for, even pampered, his specimens like an overprotective parent—polishing the skulls to glistening perfection, meticulously tattooing them with Roman numerals, and including thorough descriptions of each.

Morton compiled measurements and detailed illustrations of his specimens in the book Crania Americana; or, a Comparative View of the Skulls of Various Aboriginal Nations of North and South America: to which is Prefixed an Essay on the Varieties of the Human Species. As evidenced in the title, Morton carefully organized his study by region and tribe, presenting his data along with generalizations about each of his subsets. He also included a brief story on the provenance of each skull. Many of his specimens came from ancient burial grounds, such as the serpent mounds in the Ohio River Valley or from Incan cemeteries high in the Andes Mountains. Morton and his contemporaries had no moral quandaries with looting archaeological sites. Nor did they have a problem with simply digging up more recent graves and removing human remains. To his credit, Morton was completely transparent about how and where he acquired his crania. For example, in his discussion of a skull from an Oneida warrior, he notes “he was buried in the Indian cemetery on the Sandusky River, below Tiffin [Ohio], whence his skull was removed and presented to me by my friend Benjamin Tappan, MD.” Sometimes, war and disease conspired with Morton’s ghastly enterprise, leading to windfalls of crania. Following the Battle of Lake Okeechobee in Florida between the US Army and the Seminoles, Morton’s associates descended onto the battlefield like carrion-craving vultures, cutting off the heads of fallen warriors.

Most of the skulls amassed came from individuals whose names Morton never knew. But not all of them. In the section on Muscogee crania, he showcases the skull of Athlaha Ficksa, a Creek chief who served in the US Army and was killed in the line of duty. The ghoulish Morton betrays his enthusiasm for the craniometric details of Ficksa’s head: “We see the large and projecting cheek bones, an arched and prominent bridge of the nose, powerfully developed jaws and remarkably perfect teeth. The distance between the eyes is even greater than is usual, yet the orbits themselves are not large in proportion. The following are the measurements of this remarkably fine head: Longitudinal diameter, 7 inches. Parietal diameter 5.7 inches…”

Even worse than the grave robbery and desecration was Morton’s application of phrenology and how his “conclusions” were seized upon to justify white supremacy. Founded in the early nineteenth century by German physiologist Franz Joseph Gall, the pseudoscience phrenology took craniometric measurements to make inferences on one’s personality traits and mental abilities. Take for instance Morton’s description of a Dakota skull: “[It] belonged to a Sioux warrior of bad character. . . The small squared head, the great comparative breadth between parietal bones, and indifferent frontal development, correspond precisely with those features as observed in the individuals of the Sioux delegation.” At a time when Congress was debating the fate of Southeastern tribes, Morton’s claim that American Indians were “adverse to cultivation, slow in acquiring knowledge; restless, revengeful, and fond of war” no doubt moved the needle just enough to ensure passage of the Indian Removal Act.

When Morton was head hunting during the first half of the nineteenth century, there were virtually no protections or recourse for Indigenous peoples. In 1906, Congress passed the Antiquities Act, which was then followed by the Archaeological Resources Protection Act. These laws prohibited people from digging up graves and cutting off heads, but they put graves and sacred sites under the control of the federal government. Researchers, with government approval, could still remove and study human remains. It wasn’t until the passage of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act in 1990 that Native nations finally gained the protections they had so long been denied. NAGPRA not only protected Indigenous peoples’ resting places, but it also directed all federally funded museums, agencies, and institutions to return human remains, funerary objects, and other cultural items to their rightful descendants. As for Morton’s 1,000 heads, they continue to reside at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.

In this special edition of Tribal College Journal, we illuminate how research today—by, with, and for Indigenous peoples—has addressed injustices of the past and is making inroads to uplift Native nations, with tribal colleges and universities rightfully taking the lead. Read the TCJ-exclusive study “Understanding Cultural Awareness and Classroom Management,” by Derek A. Stewart of Sitting Bull College who investigates how critical it is for teachers in Native communities to be culturally and historically aware of their students’ past traumas and adverse childhood experiences. A lack of understanding not only affects the academic performance of Native children, but also impacts teacher policies for addressing behavioral issues. “[There is] a general misconception that history is somehow unrelated to education,” observes Stewart, concluding, “It is imperative that teacher training include Native American history, because it relates to positive educational outcomes.”

In the article “Research with a Purpose,” Caitlin A. Johnson and Tyler J. Parisien offer an inside look at faculty research projects at Turtle Mountain Community College that likewise serve the interest of the tribal communities where they are being conducted. “It is necessary to collaborate with Native communities to ensure that the research is culturally sensitive and can benefit both the community and the individual researcher,” they state. This collaborative spirit is rigorously addressed in the article “The Six Rs of Indigenous Research,” where a group of Native scholars known as the WILLOW Project lay out a new conceptual framework based on respect, relationship, representation, relevance, responsibility, and reciprocity. Such words were alien to Samuel George Morton, but today they must be applied to any studies on Native lands or with Native peoples.

Bradley Shreve, PhD, is editor of Tribal College Journal.

REFERENCES

Morton, S.G. (1839). Crania Americana; or, A Comparative View of the Skulls of Various Aboriginal Nations of North and South America: to which is Prefixed an Essay on the Varieties of the Human Species. Philadelphia: J. Dobson.

Renschler, E.S., & Monge, J. (2008). The Samuel George Morton Cranial Collection: Historical Significance and New Research. Expedition, 50(3). Retrieved from https://www.penn.museum/sites/expedition/the-samuelgeorge- morton-cranial-collection/

Smith, L.T. (1999). Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples. London: Zed Books.