Harvard Peabody Sends Utah Native Hair Back to Tribes
Published Date: 3/19/2025
Notice
Summary
Harvard’s Peabody Museum has finished checking its collection and found four Native American hair samples from Utah’s Uintah and Ouray Agency. These remains are linked to local tribes, and they’re ready to be returned starting April 17, 2025. This means Native communities can reclaim their ancestors’ remains soon, with no cost or delays expected.
Analyzed Economic Effects
2 provisions identified: 2 benefits, 0 costs, 0 mixed.
Four Native American hair samples available for return
The Peabody Museum has identified human remains consisting of hair clippings from four Native American individuals (ages recorded as 66, 65, and two 51-year-olds) collected at the Uintah and Ouray Agency between 1930 and 1933 and donated to the museum in 1935. The museum determined the remains are culturally affiliated with the Southern Ute Indian Tribe, the Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah & Ouray Reservation, and the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, and they may be repatriated on or after April 17, 2025.
Who can request repatriation and how requests are handled
Written repatriation requests must be sent to the Peabody Museum official listed in the notice and may be submitted by any one or more of the three named Ute tribes, or by a lineal descendant or other tribe/organization that shows by a preponderance of the evidence that it is culturally affiliated. Repatriation may occur on or after April 17, 2025; if competing requests are received, the museum will decide the most appropriate requestor, and joint requests are treated as a single request.
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Harvard’s Peabody Museum has finished checking its collection and found some Native American hair from a young Bannock individual taken at the Flandreau Indian School in South Dakota. They’ve confirmed these remains belong to the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes and plan to return them starting April 18, 2025. This means the museum is doing its part to respect Native heritage and make things right.
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