FAQs About the Grutzmacher Collection

How big is the Grutzmacher Collection?
The Collection contains about 12,400 Native American items; 69 Americana items including Civil War era money and medals, family trees, and photographs; and an archive containing Grutzmacher’s own catalogs and drawings.

Where is the Grutzmacher Collection?
Much of the Native American items (approximately 6,550) are on loan to the Mukwonago Historical and Museum Society (MHMS) to display at the Red Brick Museum. Visit their website for museum hours and availability: www.mukwonagohistoricalsociety.org. The other items are in secure storage at the Library.

Your content goes here. Edit or remove this text inline or in the module Content settings. You can also style every aspect of this content in the module Design settings and even apply custom CSS to this text in the module Advanced settings.

Who owns the Grutzmacher Collection?
The Mukwonago Community Library Board of Trustees is the owner of the Grutzmacher Collection. However, it works with other organizations to display and care for it. Currently it has a loan agreement with the Mukwonago Historical and Museum Society (MHMS) to display much of the Collection for public education. It is useful to understand the difference between care, custody, and control of a collection:

• Care – This is the entity who is in charge of cleaning, preserving, and generally overseeing the items. In a large university, this could be the anthropology professors.
• Custody – This is the entity who is in physical possession of the items. In a large university, this could be the Anthropology Museum.
• Control – This is the entity who has legal power over the items (ownership). In a large university, this could be the Board of Regents.

As you can see, there can be three separate parties in charge of these three separate responsibilities. And, despite the small size of Mukwonago, we are in a very complex situation:

• MHMS is in charge of day-to-day care of the items loaned to them on display at the Red Brick Museum.
  • The Library is in charge of the day-to-day care of the rest of the Collection that is housed at the Library, including all NAGPRA eligible items.
• The Village (as owners of the Red Brick Museum building), the Library Board (as owners of the Library building), and MHMS (as the occupants of the Red Brick Museum and owners of display cases) are all in charge of custody.
• The Library Board retains control over the entire Collection and ensures that it is properly insured, NAGPRA compliant, protected, and cared for.

What prompted the Library to investigate the Grutzmacher Collection?
Through their partnership with MHMS, the Library Board learned that the Grutzmacher Collection was not adequately insured in case of disaster. This led to a monthslong investigation throughout 2021 and 2022 where the Library Board focused their efforts on examining the history, status, and legal considerations of the Grutzmacher Collection. During that time, a formal loan agreement was established with MHMS, appropriate insurance was procured, negotiations with MHMS to donate the collection were started, and Bernstein & Associates NAGPRA Consultants was hired to help catalog the Collection in August 2022 and guide the Library through compliance with the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA).

Why did the Library decide to keep the Collection?
After the comprehensive inventory in the summer of 2022, the Library explored options to donate the Collection to MHMS. However, when it became clear that many Native American items in the collection would be NAGPRA eligible and the owners of the Collection would have to invest a significant amount of time, money, and resources to comply with this federal law, the Library Board decided to keep the Collection because it was in a better position administratively to handle that responsibility.

What does it cost to keep the Collection?
Between the initial cataloging and documenting of the Collection, the ongoing legal and administrative responsibilities, and NAGPRA compliance, the Library has invested a lot of time and money since 2022 into ensuring the Collection is responsibly and ethically cared for. Except for staff time, the costs have been covered by endowment funds. As of April 2024:

• The Library Director and Library staff have spent approximately 354 hours on NAGPRA compliance including cataloging, follow up phone calls to Tribes, communication and consultations with Tribes, administration due to regulation changes in January 2024, and repatriation of items.
• The Library Director has spent an additional approximate 260 hours on Library Board matters related to this Collection including communicating with consultants, policy writing, investigating and reporting, Board and Committee preparations, record keeping, and working with community partners.
• The Grutzmacher Collection Committee logged a total of 67.5 meeting hours (337.5 volunteer hours) in 2023 to create the loan agreement, policy, forms, and procedures for the Collection as well as discuss other matters related to the care and keeping of the Collection. In 2024, the Committee has already held 2 hours of meetings for a total of 10 volunteer hours.
• Since August 2022, the Library Board has invested approximately $94,500 into caring for the Grutzmacher Collection, including:
  • $45,000 hiring experts to guide NAGPRA compliance and collection care
  • $42,500 worth of staff time
  • $7,000 on professionally packing and storing the items on display at the Red Brick Museum in preparation for a building project
• In April 2024, the Library Board committed to spending up to $15,000 on new display cases for the Red Brick Museum

What is NAGPRA?
The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) is a federal law enacted in 1990 and provides a legal route for Tribes to reclaim important cultural items. From the nps.gov website:

Since 1990, Federal law has provided for the repatriation and disposition of certain Native American human remains, funerary objects, sacred objects, and objects of cultural patrimony. By enacting NAGPRA, Congress recognized that human remains of any ancestry “must at all times be treated with dignity and respect.” Congress also acknowledged that human remains and other cultural items removed from Federal or tribal lands belong, in the first instance, to lineal descendants, Indian Tribes, and Native Hawaiian organizations. With this law, Congress sought to encourage a continuing dialogue between museums and Indian Tribes and Native Hawaiian organizations and to promote a greater understanding between the groups while at the same time recognizing the important function museums serve in society by preserving the past.

What do the new regulations mean?
On January 12, 2024, the regulations for administering NAGPRA were updated for the first time in eight years. Some significant updates that impact the Library include:

• Duty of care – cannot display NAGPRA eligible items without prior consent of Tribes
• Deference to traditional knowledge of Tribes
• New documentation standards – ensure transparency

The Library is committed the respectful care of the Native American items under its control and has already aligned practices with the new regulations by notifying Tribes prior to packing and moving loaned items at the Red Brick Museum.

What is the difference between NAGPRA law and the new regulations?
“Laws” are passed by both branches of Congress and signed by the President. Laws establish requirements or prohibitions. The federal law for NAGPRA (25 USC 32) has not changed.

 “Regulations” are published by executive branch agencies to clarify their interpretation of a law and how a law will be implemented. The new regulations place emphasis on Tribal knowledge and “strengthen the authority and role of Indigenous communities in the repatriation process” according to Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland.

What kind of items are covered under NAGPRA?
NAGPRA protects cultural items that are important to a Tribe. A “cultural item” may be human remains, funerary objects, sacred objects, or objects of cultural patrimony.

Why does the Library have to comply with NAGPRA?
Any public institution that controls Native American cultural items and has received Federal money is considered a “museum” and must comply with NAGPRA. Learn more about compliance at nps.gov.

How did the Library comply with NAGPRA?
In May 2022 the Library Board hired Bernstein & Associates to catalog all of the Native American items in the Grutzmacher Collection and complete a NAGPRA Summary of cultural items. The Collection does not have any human remains. In October 2022, this Summary was approved by the Library Board and submitted to National NAGPRA as well as mailed to all 347 Tribes in the contiguous United States who may be interested in contacting the Library about any of the items.

In fall of 2023, the Library was alerted to the fact that three items identified as coming from Bennett Mound were actually Associated Funerary Objects (AFOs). The Library worked with Bernstein & Associates as well as relevant Tribes to develop an Inventory to properly document these items and in April 2024 plans to submit a Notice of Inventory Completion to the Federal Register. The Library anticipates a Request for Repatriation soon thereafter and looks forward to returning these items home as soon as possible.  

Why do Tribes contact the Library?
The Library has submitted a Summary to every federally recognized Tribe in the contiguous United States. The Summary contains basic information like the type of item, the tracking number assigned during cataloging, and any tags or writing on the item that might help identify where it came from (its “provenience”). Library staff also conducted follow-up phone calls to every one of those 347 Tribes to ensure they received the information.

 When a Tribe identifies an item(s) in the Summary that they believe could be culturally significant, they will contact the Library Director. They may request photographs of the items or more information. Often these requests take hours to reply to as a response involves gathering the information to fit the specific request, then sharing it in a secure manner. The Library Director has responded to these types of requests from 17 different Tribes in the first year alone.

What is a “consultation”? And why is it so important?
Tribes can request a “consultation,” a formal meeting where both parties exchange information and determine if the Tribe would like to request a repatriation. Since there is no original inventory and very little information about the Collection, the Library values the opportunity to consult with Tribes who will often share important insights about an item. These meetings are held via Zoom since many Tribes are hundreds of miles away. However, that doesn’t mean they are just quick chats—when the Library enters into a consultation, under federal law it represents the United States government in a discussion with a sovereign nation. The conversations are kept private because the items being discussed are funerary or religious in nature. The Library Director and a designated Library Board Trustee have participated in 8 consultations in the last year.

What is a “repatriation”?
When a Tribe has determined that an item belongs to them, they submit a Request for Repatriation. Returning an item to its rightful Tribe is called a “repatriation” because the item is being returned to its originating nation governed by Tribal sovereignty. The Request gets published in the Federal Register and, if no other Tribe submits a claim in 30 days, legal control reverts to the requesting Tribe.

Basically, there are two parts to the repatriation process:

• Legal control – When an item is repatriated to a Tribe, the status is often only legal since many items are hundreds or thousands of miles away in a museum. A museum can enter into a care and custody agreement with the Tribe to retain physical custody of the repatriated item and care for it until it can be returned home.
• Physical return – It may take months or years to physically reunite a repatriated item with its Tribe. It is customary for the museum to pay for the item to be returned and can involve a museum staff member or other authorized personnel to physically bring the item to the Tribe in order to retain the chain of custody. If the items are funerary in nature or are ancestors (human remains), Tribes will plan these returns around reburials.

Has the Library repatriated an item?
Yes! The Mukwonago Community Library is proudly the first public library in Wisconsin and the third in the country to repatriate belongings under NAGPRA. These Belongings were taken from from Hollister Mound in California decades ago and were legally repatriated to the Wilton Rancheria Tribe in April 2023. The Library Board has committed to sending a Library staff member to Sacramento to physically return the Belongings in May 2024.

How is the Library paying for its compliance with NAGPRA?
The Mukwonago Community Library has only used endowment funds to pay for NAGPRA compliance and appropriate storage materials for the Collection. Once items begin to be repatriated, the National NAGPRA Program offers grants to pay for any costs associated with returning the item home.  

How long does the Library have to comply with NAGPRA?
Native American Tribes do not have a time limit to contact the Library with questions or requests for consultation about items in the Grutzmacher Collection. The Library Board has consciously committed future staff time and resources to ensure compliance and that the Library can quickly respond to any communication from Tribes. The Library eagerly looks forward to consulting with Tribes to not only ensure they can quickly and safely repatriate any items of cultural significance, but to also learn more about the items under its control and discover how to share the rich cultural heritage of the Tribes with the Mukwonago community.

Are there future plans for the Grutzmacher Collection?
The Library Board of Trustees has consciously and solemnly accepted responsibility as owners of this Collection. We are constantly learning about how we can be better stewards of this Collection and fulfill our duties to the local, Tribal, and education communities. The Library Board has worked with experts to craft a Grutzmacher Collection Policy, legal forms, and loan agreements to establish a clear mission and transparent procedures for handling the Collection. In July 2023 an expert was hired to conduct an archaeological assessment to identify any fakes or previously unidentified NAGPRA eligible items. The Library is committed to continuing to work with its community partners to ensure the Collection is widely accessible for educational and historical purposes.

 For more information on NAGPRA, visit https://www.nps.gov/subjects/nagpra/index.htm

If you have more questions about the Grutzmacher Collection, please contact Library Director Abby Armour:

A Note on Language
Though the languages of NAGPRA, insurance, and other legal necessities require the use of terms such as “culturally affiliated” and “cultural objects,” the Library Board of Trustees recognizes and respects the people to whom such terms refer are the ancestors of many with whom we are working on these issues. The Library intends no disrespect from the necessary use of legal language.