baby Jean-Baptiste (see entry for 1823). With her
husband, Sacagawea was hired to serve as an inter-
preter for the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Hosting
the event, First Lady Hillary Clinton tells the
crowd, “Sacagawea played an unforgettable role in
the history of our nation. We are here to celebrate
her... and the even greater role that Native Ameri-
can women will play in the future.”
May 17
Makah Indians hunt a gray whale.
A Makah whaling crew, traveling in a hand-carved
cedar canoe, harpoons a gray whale off the coast
of Neah Bay, Washington. The whale hunt is the
first held by the Makah since the 1920s, when gray
whales were declared endangered due to overhunt-
ing by commercial whalers. Although the Makah
were given permission to hunt five whales a year
by the International Whaling Commission (see
entry for OCTOBER 1997), the event is protested
by several animal-rights groups, who maintain that
the hunt does not represent a revival of tribal ways
because nontraditional hunting methods are em-
ployed. The protesters are particularly incensed by
the teams of Makah in motorboats who accompany
the hunters and shoot at the wounded whale after it
is hit by the first harpoon.
May 23
Museums at Harvard and Phillips Academy
at Andover, Massachusetts, return human
remains to Pecos and Jemez Pueblos.
In response to the Native American Graves
Protection and Reparation Act (see entry for
NOVEMBER 16, 1990), Harvard University and
Phillips Academy at Andover, both in Mas-
sachusetts, have their museums return Pueblo
Indian human remains dating from the 12th to
the 19th centuries. The event marks the largest
repatriation of American Indian remains to date.
Harvard alone gives the Jemez Pueblo the bones
of 2,000 humans found at an abandoned village
in New Mexico’s Pecos Valley. The excavation was
conducted by anthropologist Alfred V. Kidder
between 1915 and 1929. Since the 1930s, the col-
lection has been used by scientists to study early
southwestern cultures and a variety of medical
conditions, including osteoporosis, head injuries,
and tooth decay. The Jemez plan to conduct a pri-
vate reburial of the bones at the Pecos National
Monument Historical Park, 30 miles south of
Santa Fe, New Mexico.June 16Thirty-four Indian tribes file a tobacco suit.
Leaders of 34 tribes, most from the West and Mid-
west, file a suit against more than a dozen tobacco
companies to recover billions of dollars the tribes
have spent treating smoking-related illnesses. The
legal action comes on the heels of a court ruling
ordering tobacco companies to pay 46 states more
than $200 billion in compensation. Although In-
dians have much higher smoking rates than the
general population, Indian tribes are to receive no
benefit from the settlement.July 7President Bill Clinton visits the Pine Ridge
Reservation.
On a four-day tour of the poorest communities of
the United States, President Bill Clinton, accom-
panied by the Reverend Jesse Jackson, visits the
Oglala Sioux’s Pine Ridge Reservation in South
Dakota. The event marks the first time a U.S.
president has made an appearance on an Indian
reservation since the Roosevelt administration.
Acknowledging that a nationwide economic boom
has made little change in the standard of living of
Pine Ridge residents, Clinton promises that the
federal government will investigate new ways to al-
leviate reservation poverty, particularly by working
with the private sector. In a speech, Clinton states,
“We’re coming from Washington to ask you what
you want to do and tell you we will give you the
tools and support to get done what you want to
do for your children and their future.” While the