New York City‘s American Museum of Natural History has pulled its entire 12,000 human remain collection after admitting some skeletons of Indigenous and enslaved people came from graves that had been robbed.
The museum – ranked one of the top science museums in the world – is set to remove a dozen exhibits on display so they can be investigated to determine their origins.
‘Figuring out the answers to exactly what we have here, and how to actually describe that as completely as we can, is something that is important to do moving forward,’ said Sean M. Decatur, the museum’s president, told The New York Times.
The news was announced in a letter to employees of the museum this week, as other natural history museums face similar scrutiny.
Bones and remains scale the entire building, but the controversial exhibits at risk are those that display stolen skeletons that were dug up from grave sites.
Under the Native American Graves Protection & Repatriation Act, the American Museum of Natural History has only returned 1,000 of the 2,200 remains it has. It has faced previous controversy for holding out on the rest of the Native American skeletons
One of the dozen exhibits that have been removed from the museum to be examined are the skeletal remains of the 1903 Manhattan cemetery for enslaved people (pictured). The remains were found by construction workers before they decided to pile the bones in a pyramid-like shape
Sean M. Decatur, the President of the American Museum of Natural History sent a letter to the museum’s staff this week about the pulling of 12,000 human remains after it admitted to have stolen the skeletal remains from Native Americans and enslaved people
One of the suspected stolen collections is the remains of five Black adults that were taken from a 1903 Manhattan cemetery for enslaved people.
The collection of skeleton bodies was then discovered by construction workers before they decided to pile the bodies into a pyramid shape and snap a picture.
The largest collection that the museum holds is the collection of 2,200 Native Americans that were supposed to be returned to their respective home county more than 30 years ago.
Under the Native American Graves Protection & Repatriation Act, the American Museum of Natural History has only returned 1,000 of the 2,200 Native American remains.
The museum has faced previous controversy for holding out on the rest of the Native American skeletons, as they’ve claimed to have been researching the remaining bodies themselves.
The act provides a process for museums and federal agencies to transfer Native American cultural items. The objects refer to human remains, funerary objects, sacred objects and objects of cultural patrimony.
A third set of remains under investigation is known as the ‘medical collection’ and includes the remains of 400 poor New Yorkers who died in the 1940s.
Their bodies were left unclaimed and given to medical schools but were soon transferred to the museum.
The New York Times reported the transfer of the ‘medical collection’, according to legal scholars, ‘may not have been allowed under the law.’
Suspicion of the stolen remains sparked interest when local historians started to research the area that once surrounded the former grave site.
Decatur, a Black man himself, said: ‘The legacy of dehumanizing Black bodies through enslavement continues after death in how those bodies were treated and dehumanized in service of a scientific project’
The New York City museum – ranked one of the top science museums in the world – is set to remove one dozen exhibits currently on display so they can be investigated to determine their exact origins and identity
Harry L. Shapiro (pictured) served as chairman of the anthropology department at the museum. The museum has now pulled 12,000 human remains as it investigates their orgin
‘I felt like the bones should be repatriated,’ Cole Thompson, one of the historians told The New York Times.
Decatur, a Black man himself, said: ‘The legacy of dehumanizing Black bodies through enslavement continues after death in how those bodies were treated and dehumanized in service of a scientific project.’
Unlike Native American remains, there are no legal acts requiring that enslaved peoples remains be returned to where they originated. However, legislation passed in 2021 looks to preserve burial sites.
The African American Burial Grounds Network requires that historic Black cemeteries are kept sacred and protected.
‘None of the items on display are so essential to the goals and narrative of the exhibition as to counterbalance the ethical dilemmas presented by the fact that human remains are in some instances exhibited alongside and on the same plane as objects,’ Decatur said in his letter.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Dailymail.co.uk
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