BY JENNY CALLISON
Enquirer Contributor
MIDDLETOWN -- It began with a question about a century-old skull on a museum shelf, and became a quest that ended with the return of the skull to its homeland, North Dakota.
In early 1995, Gary Wheeler, a professor and associate executive director for academic affairs at Miami University Middletown, learned that Miami University's Hefner Zoology Museum contained the skull of a young American Indian killed during the Battle of Little Bighorn in 1876.
Mr. Wheeler, himself of Indian ancestry, decided to identify the young warrior and determine his tribal affiliation.
Mr. Wheeler will tell the story of his painstaking research and return of the skull in a lecture tonight at the Miami University Art Museum in Oxford. His talk is called "Wiping the Tears: Returning a Young Man to the Land of the Hunkpapa."
Mr. Wheeler began his search with a forensic examination. He also pored over historical notes and eyewitness battle narratives for clues.
He determined that the warrior was part of the Hunkpapa Lakota tribe. In summer 1995, Mr. Wheeler took the skull to the lands of the Hunkpapa in North Dakota.
He participated in "Wiping the Tears" to reintroduce the spirit of the warrior to his family. "Wiping the Tears is a traditional ceremony that was used when a hunting or war party came back and one of its members had died," he said.
At the conclusion of the three-day ceremony, the warrior's skull was placed in a special intertribal cemetery used for reburials.
"Wiping the Tears" is part of Miami's yearlong focus on American Indian cultures. Related events include:
A book discussion with Jill Lepore of Boston University, author of The Name of War: King Phillip's War and the Origins of American Identity; 4 p.m. today, third floor of Bachelor Hall on Miami's Oxford campus.
Stephen Lekson speaking on "Land, Ceremony and Power in the Ancient Southwest" at 7:30 p.m. Monday in the Miami University Art Museum.
"Native American Religious Practices," a talk by Jake Swamp, spiritual chief of the Iroquois Nation, at 8 p.m. Nov. 10 in Miami's Bishop Hall.
A program on "Contemporary Native American Women" with Beverly Neal of Ohio State University, in the Shriver Center, 7 p.m. Nov. 12. All programs are free to the public. Call 529-2266 or 529-7592. "Wiping the Tears" begins at 7:30 p.m. The Miami University Art Museum is on Patterson Avenue (U.S. 27), Oxford. Call 529-2232.
