P-22 was the most famous mountain lion in the world because he lived in Los Angeles and many people liked him. He has his own page on the internet.
P-22 (c. 2009/2010 – December 17, 2022) was a wild mountain lion who resided in Griffith Park in Los Angeles, California, on the eastern side of the Santa Monica Mountains. P-22 was first identified in 2012 and was the subject of significant media attention, including numerous books, television programs and other works of art. P-22 was often recorded prowling in the Hollywood Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles. He was monitored by a radio collar. P-22 remained in Griffith Park for ten years until he was captured then euthanized on December 17, 2022, after suffering traumatic injuries consistent with being hit by a car in combination with several longer-term health issues.
He was euthanized recently and there was a lot of sadness in the sample obituary. P-22's body is being claimed by Native Americans in the area who want it turned over to them so they can give it a spiritual burial
Native American remains can be turned over to people who can show a connection to the remains. Elizabeth Weiss describes it.
. . . the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA). The law requires that federally funded researchers who discover or work with Native American human remains or cultural items must turn these finds over to such modern-day Native American tribes that can demonstrate a close ancestral or geographical linkage.
The law has been used too broadly, especially with respect to Weiss's own research, as she recounts in her story.
But as I have written previously, the law has been interpreted in an overbroad way, such that unearthed Paleoindian skeletons that are thousands of years old are now being successfully claimed by modern tribes that have little or no connection to the specimens in question.
As a result of NAGPRA—and its state-level counterparts, such as the California Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (CalNAGPRA)—scientists are being denied the opportunity to analyze such discoveries as part of their research. In some cases, moreover, laws such as NAGPRA and CalNAGPRA have become vehicles for activists to enforce their spiritual and religious beliefs at the expense of secular scientific research. As reported earlier this year in Quillette, this can include explicitly sexist religious or spiritual prohibitions on women handling (or even gazing upon) tribal artifacts.
I speak here from personal experience, as my own anthropological research at San José State University (SJSU) in California has been negatively affected by NAGPRA and CalNAGPRA. And I have come to regard these laws as a threat to free academic inquiry, especially since they’re now being used to repatriate Native American remains from museums and universities before they’ve been properly analyzed with modern scanning technologies. Denying researchers the ability to study unearthed human remains harms our ability to understand the past and help the living.
Weiss has been forbidden from studying the remains in her own university's collection or even studying X-rays of those bones because she studies human remains up to 3000 years old. She told me that she wasn't allowed to show pictures of the boxes that held the bones. The Native Americans could make a convincing case that remains are connected to their group if scientists were allowed a reasonable period to study the remains before they were handed over to the group to which they belonged. Valuable knowledge about the past is lost if we don't have it.
Weiss was forbidden by her own school from studying bones that were not related to any current group. She wasn't allowed to study bones from Tunisia for a while.
I don't buy claims about ownership of ancient remains or whether a certain group can claim ownership of land that was once theirs. This is similar to the case of P-22 in that it is based on faith.
One thing I am certain about is that Native Americans cannot claim the remains of a mountain lion and prevent scientists from studying it. There is no case to be made that a Native American group has a claim to a felid's bones.
There is a kerfuffle in this picture.
Now that P-22 has been euthanized by wildlife authorities, it’s unclear what will happen to the remains of the famous mountain lion. While government agencies and museum officials consider the final resting place for the cat, the Native American community in Southern California wants P-22 to be buried near Griffith Park with a ceremony that honors his spirit.
The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County received P-22’s body from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife on Friday. Although previously considered, museum officials said Thursday they do not plan to taxidermy P-22’s body or put his remains on display, which was a major concern for the Native American community.
But it’s still unclear what the future holds for the big cat.
Researchers were already in the process of collecting samples and performing a necropsy — a type of an animal autopsy — on P-22 when they learned about the concerns from the Native American communities. That process has been put on hold while the museum gathers more feedback from those groups. Several Native American people contacted by The Times said they had not initially been approached by the museum for feedback but have since been in talks about how to honor P-22’s remains.
Scientists are interested in studying the remains.
Research on P-22’s body could show the firsthand effects of an urban setting on a mountain lion who managed to eke out his existence for more than a decade surrounded by humans, according to biologists. It’s not likely that there will be another like P-22, so he would yield unique information about his experience, conservationists say.
The Native Americans don't want P-22 to be kept as a specimen so that future work can be on his remains. This beloved animal is singing with the choir invisible and is an ex-cat. P-22 is resting in peace. Not if those with other ways of knowing cats have their say.
But the thought of P-22 going to a museum as a specimen fills tribal community members with dread. [JAC: DREAD? That’s a bit histrionic.]
“That’s not our way. That’s a scientific colonial way,” said Kimberly Morales Johnson, tribal secretary of the Gabrieleno/Tongva San Gabriel Band of Mission Indians. “That cat is a relative to us.”
The Tongva word for mountain lion is tukuurot. In their creation story, mountain lions were one of several animals that watched early humans grow and flourish.
I don't think that's enough to claim the body
Members of the Gabrieleño Band of Mission Indians, Kizh Nation, have been asked to provide feedback for state projects built on their ancestral land numerous times, Indigenous biologist Matt Teutimez said. The process can include a blessing performed by tribal elders, and in other instances tribal members provide cultural and scientific feedback.
Native American input can often feel like an afterthought, Teutimez said.
“They usually just want our participation. They already have their minds made up with their Western thought of how to remedy the problem,” Teutimez said. “All they wanted was our tribe to get involved for the photo op.”
He’s hopeful that P-22 can provide a teachable moment on how Western culture needs to reevaluate its relationship with wildlife and consider it more than just animals.
If there was an obvious connection to the group, I wouldn't offer them input into what to do with P-22's remains There is no claim here except for the demands of people who were colonized and the fact that P-22 roams over lands that used to be occupied by Native American groups. If the body is kept out of the public eye for scientific study, then it's worth keeping it in the Museum. Group can't say they have a claim to wild animals.
All the Native Americans in America are related to this cat in one way or another.
All Rights Reserved © 2024
