Native Americans pursue the return of ancestral remains for reburial

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Since about two decades Native Americans are pursuing to have human remains of their ancestors and accompanying artifacts return to them. These human remains are then reburied in ceremonies.

Important pieces of legislation to make this possible were enacted in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Major Native American collections are held at two museums, the National Museum of Natural History and the National Museum of the American Indian, both independent Smithsonian institutes

Called home: Native Americans pursue the return of ancestral remains to places of origin for reburial- Montrose Daily Press

“After decades of excavation by archaeologists and displays of Native American remains in museums, a movement began about 20 years ago to reverse that trend. In the early 1990s, various Indian tribes petitioned Congress for laws to return not only human remains of Native Americans to their places of origin, but accompanying artifacts as well.

"Tribes didn't like it (the practice), but there was nothing they could do about it until now," McCook said."

“To date, the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History has identified 18,000 out of 33,000 human remains as belonging to Native Americans. Of 5,400 of the human remains, 3,652 have been repatriated. A large number (90,159) of funerary objects have also been disbursed back to tribes.”

See also

• SULAIR: Native American Repatriation & Reburial - "Issues Relevant to Reburial of Native American Human Remains at Stanford,"

• Reburial Dispute - At some point the remains will be repatriated for reburial. Documents related to the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act

• Smithsonian Institution - America's national educational facility with 19 museums, 9 research centers and over 140 affiliate museums around the world.
  

Image via Wikipedia

Hall of Mammals at the National Museum of Natural History, Washington, DC