Report from the Human Remains Task Force

Secretary Bunch shares the recommendations from the Human Remains Task Force he created early last year. The full report is available here and as a downloadable .pdf.

We are committed to being a leader in all respects, and that means addressing the wrongs of our past by taking steps to ethically return collections and humanely steward any human remains in our care. The work of repatriation began several decades ago, and we recognize that it requires a long-term commitment to complete. In recent months, we have made significant progress in this area, both within the Institution and in collaboration with others. I would like to commend our colleagues at NMAI and NMNH for their continued efforts towards this goal. This important but difficult work has had a deeply personal impact on those asked to carry it out.

The Human Remains Task Force I established in early 2023 completed its work and submitted their recommendations to my office. I will provide guidance soon to senior leadership on how the Smithsonian will implement a permanent policy.  After consulting with key stakeholders from across the Smithsonian and externally, we are releasing the Task Force’s recommendations to the public: the full report is now published.

In brief, the Human Remains Task Force recommends the following:

• The Smithsonian should offer to return the remains of people who did not consent to being in Smithsonian custody.
• These remains’ ultimate disposition should be determined by descendants and descendant communities, organizations, and institutions.
• Going forward, human remains should not be collected, possessed, or displayed by the Smithsonian without informed consent.
• Research on human remains in the custody of the Smithsonian should be restricted to specific purposes and subject to scholarly review and conducted only with informed consent of the deceased or their descendants.
• The Smithsonian should make reasonable efforts to identify lineal descendants of the deceased currently in its custody. Destructive analysis on human remains should not be used to identify descendants.
• When lineal descendants cannot be found after reasonable efforts, the deceased’s community of origin or an appropriate community organization or institution of interest should be identified, and decisions regarding the care and disposition of the remains should be made in conjunction with that community. If a community of origin or interest cannot be identified or determined, or if the appropriate community cannot achieve consensus, the Smithsonian should establish a process for burial or reburial and memorialization on behalf of the deceased. This process should also encompass any other human remains collected without consent that the Smithsonian is not able to return (for example, individuals with no identifying information).
• Repatriation of Native American remains under the National Museum of the American Indian Act of 1989 should be expedited (This act requires the repatriation of Native Americans held by the National Museum of the American Indian and the National Museum of Natural History).
• The National Museum of Natural History should establish a staff dedicated to returning non-Native American human remains in Smithsonian custody. This staff should parallel the efforts of the museum’s Repatriation Program Office, which manages the return of Native American human remains.
• The Smithsonian should seek added resources from both Congress and philanthropic sources to carry out this work. Additional resources should be sought for grants to descendants to facilitate memorialization.
• A high-level committee of Smithsonian staff, led by the Under Secretary for Science and Research and the Under Secretary for Museums and Culture should craft and oversee the policy and its implementation and report regularly to the Secretary on their progress.

As we approach the country’s 250th anniversary in 2026, one of my main priorities is to empower the Smithsonian and our country to live up to the nation’s highest ideals. As we continue to fine-tune our processes to make this possible, I hope we can help set the ethical standard for all cultural institutions in the years ahead. I thank everyone on the Human Remains Task Force for their work and look forward to seeing their recommendations made real across the Smithsonian.

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human-remains-task-force-report.pdf

Read more

The Smithsonian’s Human Remains Task Force Calls for New Repatriation Policies | Smart News| Smithsonian Magazine

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