Rehberg to help Browning museum

The Daily Inter Lake

Congressman Dennis Rehberg, R-Mont., has asked the U.S. Office of Management and Budget to find a way to continue funding the Museum of the Plains Indian in Browning.

The future of the Browning museum and other Indian museums in Oklahoma and South Dakota has been clouded by a decision to eliminate the budget for the facilities by October 2007.

The Indian Arts and Crafts Board within the U.S. Department of the Interior intends to cut the $150,000 annual budget for the Browning museum to provide more money for cracking down on the trafficking of counterfeit Indian artifacts.

"The federal government cannot simply walk away from its responsibility to preserve valuable historical artifacts," Rehberg wrote in a letter to Josh Bolton, director of the Office of Management and Budget. "American Indians, and indeed all Americans, have a right to expect even a small government investment in the protection of these treasures."

Rehberg said that it's been financially difficult for the Indian Arts and Crafts Board to maintain the museums and enforce the Indian Arts and Crafts Act of 1990, which gave the facilities additional responsibility to restrain counterfeit Indian artistry and craftsmanship. The board acquired the Browning museum decades ago when the Bureau of Indian Affairs was faced with budget cuts.

The Browning museum attracts 15,000 visitors annually, and members of a new artist association that has formed to support the museum say the economic spin-off from the museum's visitors is important to Browning.

Preserving the Indian heritage in these communities is equally important, Rehberg said.

"If the museums are forced to close in 2007, the rare and unique treasures they house would likely be relocated to the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C.," Rehberg told Bolton. "Forcing these museums to close and ship their collections to a national museum thousands of miles away would deal a severe blow to the communities and cultures the museums serve."

Rehberg vowed to build a coalition of federal legislators to fight the plans to phase out funding.

Scott Cameron, a deputy assistant secretary at the Department of the Interior, said the federal government hopes community groups and the Blackfeet Tribe will come up with a plan to keep the Browning museum's doors open.