Harvard Museum IDs Old Native Hair for Tribal Return
Published Date: 3/19/2025
Notice
Summary
Harvard’s Peabody Museum has finished checking some Native American hair samples collected long ago at the Sherman Institute in California. They’ve confirmed these remains belong to Native American individuals connected to the Cachil DeHe Band tribe. Starting April 18, 2025, these remains can be returned to the tribe, honoring their heritage and history.
Analyzed Economic Effects
2 provisions identified: 2 benefits, 0 costs, 0 mixed.
Human Remains Linked to Wintun Tribes
Harvard’s Peabody Museum has determined that hair clippings from three Native American individuals (two recorded as 18 years old and one recorded as 17 years old) collected at the Sherman Institute between 1930 and 1933 are culturally affiliated with the Cachil DeHe Band of Wintun Indians of the Colusa Indian Community of the Colusa Rancheria, Greenville Rancheria, and the Kletsel Dehe Wintun Nation of the Cortina Rancheria. The museum made this affiliation determination and holds the remains (no associated funerary objects) that are identified for repatriation.
When and Who Can Request Repatriation
The Peabody Museum may repatriate the human remains on or after April 18, 2025. Written repatriation requests may be submitted by any one or more of the Indian Tribes named in the notice, or by a lineal descendant or other Indian Tribe that shows by a preponderance of the evidence that they are a lineal descendant or culturally affiliated. If competing requests are received, the museum will decide the most appropriate requestor; joint requests count as a single request.
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