Today in Smithsonian History: September 11, 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.
Learn more from the Natural History Museum’s Repatriation Office.
Courtesy of Smithsonian Institution Archives
Posted: 11 September 2019
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