October 30, 2024
Hamilton is looking at digging up its historic artifacts all over again.
The city is home to more than 1,200 registered archeological sites that have yielded millions of historic remnants ranging from 10,000-year-old arrowheads to War of 1812 military buttons.
Ontario law makes archeologists responsible for storing the artifacts they dig up. Some end up in Indiana Jones-type warehouses, others in basement boxes.
Councillor Chad Collins wants the city to track down and repossess hundreds of thousands of those remnants unearthed on municipal property - before some of them end up for sale online or in the dump.
“There are horror stories in the industry, of archeological firms going out of business, or of individuals dying and the artifacts they were responsible for disappearing, whether into a landfill or wherever,” said Collins, who is consulting with Six Nations leaders on a repatriation recommendation to council.
“I think we need to look at taking possession of those culturally significant items and keep track of them ourselves - assuming we can, legally.”
That’s not a sure bet, said Councillor Brad Clark, who recently spent six months in a tug-of-war with a retired archeologist over the return of military buttons the city wanted for a planned Battle of Stoney Creek interpretive centre.
“Technically, the law says (the archeologist) has custody,” he said. “That sort of scenario could pose a real problem for us.”
Retired archeologist Rita Griffin-Short recalls the dispute differently, arguing she kept the military buttons found on Smith’s Knoll to finish a research project approved by the former Town of Stoney Creek.
But she also argued the city can’t simply demand the return of cultural artifacts without a concrete plan to protect them.
“I’m obligated by law to protect (the artifacts),” she said. “When the city first asked for them back, I had no clear idea where they would end up.”
Collins’ motion will direct staff to report on the cost and feasibility of storing repatriated artifacts as part of a larger archeological master plan update already under way.
The fate of thousands of native artifacts, from 4,500-year-old copper axe heads to shell beads, is a priority for the Red Hill Valley joint stewardship board, which is made up of city and Haudenosaunee members.
“Securing and protecting these pieces of our history is obviously a topic of great concern,” said board co-ordinator Sheri Longboat. “It’s something we’re talking about . But you also would have to talk about if you obtain them, what happens next?”
The board was formed after the city reached an agreement with traditional Six Nations chiefs on how to rehabilitate the Red Hill Valley after the contentious parkway was built. The 2004 agreement called for an interpretive centre capable of showcasing valley artifacts, but Longboat said there is no firm location or funding nailed down.
The city could also turn to McMaster University for storage space. The institution has teamed up with Western University on a $9.8-million repository for archeological significant items from across the province.
Director Aubrey Cannon said the items will be processed, logged in a database and even rendered into 3-D images. The university is setting up a First Nations advisory board and the facility will have a “loans policy” to allow communities to periodically use artifacts for displays.
“We want this history to be accessible,” he said.
Cannon said the facility will likely charge a one-time storage fee of $300 per “banker’s box” of remnants. The city has at least 400 such boxes of historic remnants scattered among seven large archeological firms alone, said Collins.
