Indigenous Human Remains at the Smithsonian

In the 1800s, government-sponsored expeditions shipped large amounts of sacred indigenous objects and human remains to Washington, D.C. Native American human remains were originally kept at the Army Medical Museum. These were later transferred to the Smithsonian Institution, which became an official repository for Native American cultural objects and human remains. Maintaining such collections was part of a practice termed “salvage anthropology”, which was thought of as “preserving” aspects of human culture that were deemed to be threatened.

By the mid-twentieth century, the belief that Native American cultures were under threat started losing credibility. Many parties involved in “salvage anthropology” sought personal and institutional gain and were criticised for mythologising indigenous culture rather than viewing and treating Native Americans as human beings. While some Native Americans such as Ely Parker, Jane Johnston Schoolcraft, and Francis La Flesche also played an active part in these so-called “cultural preservation” efforts, the movement was ultimately colored by a colonial desire to control the North American continent.

The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), passed in 1990, legislates the return of Native American and Hawaiian human remains and cultural objects from federally funded institutions. The Smithsonian operates by the slightly different National Museum of the American Indian Act passed in 1989. Since the passing of NAGPRA, more than 50,000 sets of human remains have been reclaimed by Native Americans, Native Hawaiians, and lineal descendants. In 2011, nearly 30,000 sets of human remains were moved from the National Museum of Natural History to the Smithsonian’s offsite Museum Support Centre in Suitland, Maryland, where most of them are still stored to this day.
References and Further Reading

Billeck, Bill, Jacquetta Swift, John Beaver, Andrea Hunter, and TJ Ferguson. “Repatriation at the Smithsonian Institution.” Anthropology News, March 2010.

Colwell, Chip. “Can Repatriation Heal the Wounds of History?” The Public Historian 41, no. 1 (February 2019): 90-110.

Redman, Samuel J. Prophets and Ghosts: The Story of Salvage Anthropology. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2021.

Redman, Samuel J. “Smithsonian Embarks on Move of Human Remains Collections.” Anthropology News, January 2011. https://anthrosource-onlinelibrary-wiley-com.eproxy.lib.hku.hk/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1556-3502.2011.52122.x.

Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Native_American_Graves_Protection_and_Repatriation_Act