Decades Late, Museum Scrambles to Return 2,700 Native Remains

Decades Late, Museum Scrambles to Return 2,700 Native Remains recounts how the American Museum of Natural History is revising plans to repatriate Indigenous human remains after hair samples were identified as part of its collection. The story follows Amy and Rose Cordier, whose hair was cut on Jan. 5, 1892 by an anthropologist who documented ages of 7 and 13 and classified them as “half Indigenous.” The samples were stored for decades and resurfaced after a researcher located them in the 1990s, at a time when federal law required repatriation of Native remains. Museums had debated whether hair was covered, but in 2022 the Harvard Peabody Museum moved to return Indigenous hair, and in 2024 federal regulations explicitly included hair. The museum’s leaders, including president Sean M. Decatur, say updating inventories may complicate exhibit reopening that requires tribal consultation and consent.