Harvard Returns Hair from Native Teens at Long-Ago Schools
Published Date: 3/17/2025
Notice
Summary
Harvard's Peabody Museum has finished checking its collection and found hair samples from Native American teens linked to tribes like the Eel River and Pomo. These remains, collected decades ago from schools in California and Nevada, are set to be returned to their communities starting April 16, 2025. This means important cultural items are coming home, with no costs or delays expected.
Analyzed Economic Effects
2 provisions identified: 2 benefits, 0 costs, 0 mixed.
Museum identifies four Native American remains
Harvard’s Peabody Museum identified hair clippings that represent the physical remains of four Native American individuals. The clippings were taken between 1930 and 1933 (donated to the museum in 1935) and include individuals recorded as ages 19 (identified as “Eel River”), 18 (“Pomo”), 17 (“Concow”), and 15 (“Pomo”); the museum found a reasonable connection to the Sherwood Valley Rancheria of Pomo Indians of California.
Who can request repatriation and timing
Written requests for repatriation may be submitted by any of the Indian Tribes or Native Hawaiian organizations named in the notice, by any lineal descendant, or by an Indian Tribe or organization that shows cultural affiliation by a preponderance of the evidence. Repatriation may occur on or after April 16, 2025; if competing requests are received, the Peabody Museum must determine the most appropriate requestor, and joint requests are treated as a single request.
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Previous / Next Documents
Previous: 2025-04178, Notice of Inventory Completion: Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
Harvard’s Peabody Museum has finished checking its collection and found some human remains linked to Native American tribes from Arizona, Oklahoma, and California. These remains, mostly hair clippings from individuals collected long ago, are set to be returned to the tribes starting April 16, 2025. This means Native communities will soon get back important pieces of their history, with no costs involved for them.
Next: 2025-04180, Notice of Inventory Completion: Merced College, Merced, CA
Merced College has finished checking its collection of Native American human remains and related items, confirming they belong to certain Indian Tribes or Native Hawaiian groups. Starting April 16, 2025, these remains and objects can be returned to their rightful communities. This process helps honor and respect Native cultures, with no costs or delays expected.