Sep

Today in Smithsonian History: September 11, 1988

Group passes pipe while sitting on ground near several boxes of repatriated remains

From left Blackfeet tribe members Ken Weatherwax, Gordon Belcourt, Mike Swims Under, Buster Yellow Kidney, Marvin Weatherwax, Tom Whitford and Curly Bear Wagner. Harriet Skye of the National Museum of American History is also shown. (Photo by Laurie Minor-Penland, as featured in the Torch, December 1988)

September 11, 1988 The National Museum of Natural History repatriates the remains of Blackfeet ancestors in its collection to the tribe in a formal ceremony. Many of the remains were taken from a Blackfeet cemetery by individuals collecting for the Army Medical Museum and were transferred to the Smithsonian Institution in 1898.

Repatriation is the process by which museums and other institutions transfer possession and control of Native American, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian human remains, funerary objects, objects of cultural patrimony and sacred objects back to the tribes of origin. The National Museum of the American Indian Act, passed in 1989 and amended in 1996, governs repatriation for the Smithsonian Institution and it’s museums. The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, passed in 1990, directs repatriation for other U. S. institutions that receive federal funding.