Descendants of Cheyenne Chief Dull Knife, also known as Morning Star, who led the Cheyenne’s exodus in 1878 from Indian Territory (now Oklahoma) to a new Montana homeland.
Photo: by Chip Clark, courtesy of the Smithsonian Runner, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.


Harvest Dance at Santa Clara Pueblo, New Mexico
Photo: ©Marcia Keegan
Pueblo People, Ancient Traditions, Modern Lives, Marcia Keegan. Clear Light Publishers, Santa Fe, New Mexico. www.clearlightbooks.com/marciakeegan/


AIRORF’s 1999 fundraising card
“Elements of Summer” © Dan Namingha, 1995
Dan Namingha has been a world-renowned artist for nearly thirty years. His works command unwavering respect for the earth, and spirit of his ancestry; this as the beautiful heritage is the heart of his creativity.
www.namingha.com

Click here to view.


A fundraising card for Honor the Earth, 2003 – Ledger Art ©Donald Montileaux, Oglala Lakota, 2003
In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Indigenous Peoples in the Great Plains, including Lakota, Cheyenne and Arapaho, developed a unique and powerful medium to document their history: ledger drawings. Donald Montileaux is a master ledger artist following in the footsteps of his forefathers and foremothers. Honor the Earth Mission Statement: “Our mission is to create awareness and support for Native environmental issues and to develop needed financial and political resources for the survival of sustainable Native communities.”
www.honorearth.org

Click here to view.


AIRORF’s 2003 fundraising card
Tribal Sovereign Tees ©Matthew K. Tafoya, Dine
Matthew Tafoya is the owner of Tribal Sovereign Tees. He lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico with his wife, Tina James Tafoya, and their two children. He has been in the t-shirt screen-printing business since 1997. His business has given him the opportunity to share his message about the importance of self-determination and tribal sovereignty with the public.
www.tribalsovereigntees.com

Click here to view.


Anasazi Petroglyphs, Monument Valley
Photograph © Marcia Keegan
Marcia Keegan. Mother Earth, Father Earth: Pueblo and Navajo Indians of the Southwest. Clear light Publishers, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 1974, 1988
www.clearlightbooks.com/marciakeegan/


Sunrise Ceremony, Central Park, New York, 1992
Photo: ©American Indian Ritual Object Repatriation Foundation
AIRORF sponsored an early morning sunrise ceremony on October 10, 1992. Reuben A. Snake Jr., Winnebago, invited Native American spiritual leaders from many nations. Hundreds of New Yorkers sat around the Foundation’s ceremonial tepee in Central Park; leaders gave blessings to all and said prayers for intercultural harmony.


Africa #2, Faith Hubley, 1999
Oil on canvas, 16 x 20 inches
Inspired by Faith Hubley’s, 1998 animated film, “Africa,” this painting was given to the Foundation for its Benefit Auction, at the Ramscale Gallery, New York City on, Wednesday, November 8, 2000.


AIRORF’s 2002 fundraising card
Photograph © Marilyn Youngbird, Hidatsa/Arikara, 2001; Models: Jessica Grinnell and Zaysha Amari Grinnell, Hidatsa
Marilyn Youngbird, a tribal member of the Arikara and Hidatsa Nations, is a renowned holistic health care practitioner, teacher, and lecturer who has presented cultural sensitivity training seminars and traditional Native American holistic health care workshops in the United States, Bosnia Herzegovina, Japan, Croatia, Canada, Sweden, and Russia. Marilyn has been a Trustee of the American Indian Ritual Object Repatriation Foundation since 1993.


Monument Valley, Navajoland
Photograph © Marcia Keegan
Marcia Keegan. Mother Earth, Father Earth: Pueblo and Navajo Indians of the Southwest. Clear light Publishers, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 1974, 1988
www.clearlightbooks.com/marciakeegan

Click here to view.


Rita Reif. “Buyer Vows to Return 3 Masks to Indians,” The New York Times, May 22, 1991.
This photograph accompanied the first article written about Elizabeth Sackler’s purchase of three masks at Sotheby’s Fine American Indian Art Auction on May 21, 1991. The masks were all returned to their nations of origin. This marked the inspiration for American Indian Ritual Object Repatriation Foundation.


Photograph © Gabriella Hamilton
Members of the Blood Tribe of Alberta, from left to right: the late Daniel Weasel Moccasin, Rosaline Black Plum, Sylvia Weasel Head, Chris Weasel Head, and Frank Weasel Head.
Photo accompanied the story A look At International Repatriation, by Dr. Betty White in AIRORF’s News & Notes, Volume 7, Number 1, Spring/Summer 2000


“Tree of Life”
This beautiful image was used in the catalogue for “The Mohawk Valley Community and the American Indian Ritual Object Repatriation Foundation Benefit Auction” held at Christie’s, New York City on, November 21, 1994.


AIRORF’s 2004 fundraising card
“Two Worlds, One Soul” © Marcus Cadman, 2003
Marcus Cadman is a descendant from the Kickapoo Tribe of the Plains and the Navajo of the Southwest. His art combines modern and indigenous cultural resulting in his elements often-whimsical image, but more often speak the sacred and secular aspects of his world.
www.marcuscadman.com


December 29, 1990 – Wounded Knee, South Dakota, Photo: ©James Cook
Text from the poster:
“‘It is said that where the four powers cross, it is sacred. The great power of the North with its cleansing cold and wind once again wiped away what is bad and gave us new understanding of the sacred. As we return to the center, let us not forget all that we learned and experienced in this journey back from the past. Let us rebuild our nations and mend the sacred hoop.’ Birgil Kills Straight, 1993
On December 29, 1990, in blowing snow and wind-chill temperatures around fifty degrees below zero, more than 350 mounted riders approached Wounded Knee, South Dakota to observe the end of seven generations of mourning on the centennial of the historic massacre there. The riders had retraced the path of Big Foot and his people on the seven day ride. As they rode over the last few hills, the frozen horses and riders took on a timeless and ghostly appearance as if they were indeed riding in from the past. The suffering that all experienced from the cold that day seemed that much more appropriate in remembering the results of one culture failing to understand another.”
www.traditionalsubjects.com/wndknee.html