Hundreds of thousands of items that should have been returned under the federal Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990 still remain in museum custody.
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Europe’s museums are overflowing with artefacts seized or looted from African, South American and Asian nations during colonial rule.
The British Museum now has a dedicated page on its website to ‘contested objects’ like the Benin Bronzes or two large stone moai from Easter Island.
Across the pond, the situation over the display of Native American artefacts is equally contentious.
Hundreds of thousands of items that should have been returned under the federal Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990 still remain in museum custody.
Native American tribes are still waiting for items from US museums
Tucked within the expansive Native American halls of the American Museum of Natural History is a diminutive wooden doll that holds a sacred place among the tribes whose territories once included Manhattan.
For more than six months now, the ceremonial Ohtas, or Doll Being, has been hidden from view after the museum and others nationally took dramatic steps to board up or paper over exhibits.
This action was taken in response to new federal rules requiring institutions to return sacred or culturally significant items to tribes – or at least to obtain consent to display or study them.
Museum officials are reviewing more than 1,800 items as they work to comply with the requirements while also eyeing a broader overhaul of the more than half-century-old exhibits.
But some tribal leaders remain sceptical, saying museums have not acted swiftly enough.
The new rules, after all, were prompted by years of complaints from tribes that hundreds of thousands of items that should have been returned under the federal Native American Graves Protection…
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