What are the advantages and disadvantages of being a collaborative committee?
Operating as a collaborative committee, rather than individually as tribes, has a number of advantages.
- Each member of the Committee has access to all the information and there is little duplication of work.
- Information is available from all tribes to determine geographic boundaries and criteria for identification of objects.
- The workload is distributed among several people making the process less of a burden.
- Priorities for action can be more easily set with the greater quantity of information.
- Tribes with few resources (people and money) are not limited in their ability to participate in the repatriation process.
- And perhaps grants are easier to get when
it is demonstrated that the funds will be more effectively used
to serve many.
There may be disadvantages when several tribes or bands attempt
to work together.
- All may not agree on the same priorities and methods of operation.
- Some members contribute more time and effort than others and this could create feelings of resentment.
- Disagreements can occur over geographic boundaries of individual tribes or bands.
- There may be disagreements as to jurisdiction
when claims are to be made for repatriation of objects to a tribe.
Our experience has been very fortunate
in this regard. Differences have been very minimal and consensus
has not been difficult to reach. This may change as we move into
different aspects of the repatriation process. No requests for
repatriation have yet been filed as a result of CITRC activities.
We feel strongly that the benefits of cooperative efforts far
outweigh the problems that may be associated.
