# 2025-04359: Harvard's Peabody returns Pawnee tribe's ancestral hair clippings

2025-04359, Notice of Inventory Completion: Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, is a Federal Register notice from Interior Department, National Park Service published 2025-03-18, effective 2025-04-17 (as of 2026-09-30).

- Canonical: https://policyrisk.com/federal-register/2025-04359
- As of: 2026-09-30
- Plain-text twin of the page above; the HTML and this file carry the same facts.

## Facts
- Document number: 2025-04359
- Title: Notice of Inventory Completion: Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
- Type: Notice
- Agencies: Interior Department; National Park Service
- Citation: 90 FR 12549
- Published: 2025-03-18
- Effective: 2025-04-17
- Comments close: not stated
- Significant: no
- Touches household money: no
- Regulation identifier numbers: none
- Last updated: 2026-09-30

## In one line

Harvard's Peabody returns Pawnee tribe's ancestral hair clippings

## Summary

Harvard's Peabody Museum has finished checking some Native American hair samples collected long ago from the Pawnee Reservation in Oklahoma. They confirmed these remains belong to Native American individuals and are ready to return them to the right tribes starting April 17, 2025. This means the museum is doing its part to respect Native heritage and follow important laws about returning ancestral remains.

## Abstract

In accordance with the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University (PMAE) has completed an inventory of human remains and has determined that there is a cultural affiliation between the human remains and Indian Tribes or Native Hawaiian organizations in this notice. The human remains were collected at the Pawnee Indian Reservation, Pawnee County, OK.

## Effects PRIA read

- Three Native Remains Linked to Otoe‑Missouria: benefit, low. The Peabody Museum identified hair clippings from three Native American individuals collected at the Pawnee Indian Reservation between 1930 and 1933 (donated to the museum in 1935). The museum determined there is a cultural affiliation with the Otoe‑Missouria Tribe of Indians, Oklahoma, and the rem…
- Who Can Request Repatriation and How: benefit, low. Repatriation requests may be submitted by the Indian Tribe identified in this notice, any one or more of the identified tribes or Native Hawaiian organizations, or by a lineal descendant or tribe/organization not named who proves by a preponderance of the evidence that they are a lineal descendant…

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## Sources
- [2025-04359 on federalregister.gov](https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/03/18/2025-04359/notice-of-inventory-completion-peabody-museum-of-archaeology-and-ethnology-harvard-university)
- [2025-04359 as published (PDF)](https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2025-03-18/pdf/2025-04359.pdf)

## Related
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Source: PRIA, https://policyrisk.com/federal-register/2025-04359 (as of 2026-09-30).