Harvard Museum to Return Ancestral Native American Remains
Published Date: 4/4/2025
Notice
Summary
The Peabody Museum at Harvard has finished checking its collection of human remains and found they belong to certain Native American tribes and Native Hawaiian groups. This means the museum will work on returning these remains to the right communities. This update affects those tribes and groups and sets the stage for respectful repatriation without any cost to them.
Analyzed Economic Effects
2 provisions identified: 2 benefits, 0 costs, 0 mixed.
Museum Identifies Tribal Affiliations
The Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University (PMAE) completed an inventory under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) and determined that certain human remains have a cultural affiliation with Indian Tribes or Native Hawaiian organizations. This finding starts the process for returning those remains to the affiliated tribes and Native Hawaiian organizations named in the notice.
Repatriation Provided at No Cost
The notice states that the Peabody Museum will work on returning the identified human remains to the affiliated Indian Tribes and Native Hawaiian organizations and that repatriation will occur without any cost to those tribes or organizations. This means the museum will handle repatriation logistics or expenses so the named communities do not bear those costs.
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