Officials from the Navajo Nation have purchased seven sacred masks from a Paris auction house. As Arizona Public Radio’s Ryan Heinsius reports, the masks are from the early 1900s and are used for wintertime healing ceremonies by the tribe.
Though their origins are unclear, the masks were likely illicitly sold or stolen years ago. The Navajo Nation objected to the auction because they say the ceremonial items are part of their tribal identity.
Navajo Nation Vice President Rex Lee Jim led the delegation and spoke by phone from Paris.
“They were created to heal those who are sick, and that’s why they were given to us by the gods themselves. They are not art objects to be hung on walls. We as a people have a collective right to them,” Jim says.
The U.S. embassy in France attempted to block the sale of the items. The tribe paid about $7,600 for the masks, which will be returned to the Navajo Nation and put back into ceremonial use. Jim says selling such items as art compromises their usefulness.
“When we begin to lose the sacred masks we begin to lose the healing power of those ceremonies. Once we start doing that, we begin to regard the sacred as no longer being sacred,” Jim says.
Also up for auction were hundreds of items from other Native American tribes including several Hopi masks and figurines. Arizona Senators John McCain and Jeff Flake along with several members of Congress are urging the U.S. State Department to intervene.
