Four decades after dozens of culturally significant objects were stolen from the Santa Ana Pueblo in New Mexico, a team of Tribal investigators has pledged to bring the missing items back home.
In August 1984, the Santa Ana Pueblo (Tamaya in the Keresan language) was plagued by a 10-month-long string of burglaries. Thieves looted pottery, war shields, clothing, drums, baskets, and rugs from homes in this Native American community situated on the Rio Grande, about 20 miles north of Albuquerque. The Pueblo, generally closed to the public, opens its doors on rare occasions such as feast days, and the first thefts took place shortly after one such event.
“This is particularly heartbreaking because these people took ceremonial items actively being used,” Shannon O’Loughlin (Choctaw), chief executive of the Association on American Indian Affairs, told Hyperallergic…