Get updates delivered to you daily. Free and customizable.
New York Post
NYC Museum of Natural History under fire for shuttering Native American exhibit — then abandoning it to gather dust
By Isabel Vincent,
2024-05-21
The American Museum of Natural History’s shuttered Native American exhibits are simply gathering dust four months after being shut — and tribal groups say it is “stonewalling” over repatriating precious objects.
At the time, the museum said it acted to comply with new federal regulations giving museums five years to comply with a 1990 law that ordered institutions to return human remains, sacred objects and cultural items to native groups.
The American Museum of Natural History in Manhattan shut down its Native American displays in January, saying it was to comply with new Department of the Interior rules designed to speed the repatriation of tribal objects. J. Messerschmidt for NY Post The American Museum of Natural History closed these exhibits about Native Americans in January. But four months later, tribal groups say they have heard nothing from museum bosses about repatriating the objects. J. Messerschmidt for NY Post
The displays, which stretched over 10,000 square feet and included spears, tools and mannequins sporting headdresses and traditional garments, had been a fixture for 57 years.
Decatur said they did not “respect the values, perspectives and indeed shared humanity of Indigenous peoples.”
The new rules from the US Department of the Interior tell museum directors to provide inventories of their artifacts and consult with native groups to either return the objects or seek permission to display them.
That includes any human remains, which the museum acknowledges it has in storage and which may have been acquired through the looting of sacred burial sites. Other items had been acquired from private collectors.
This is part of the now-shuttered Hall of the Great Plains, which the museum’s new boss closed in January. J. Messerschmidt for NY Post This is one of the exhibits from the Hall of Eastern Woodlands at the Manhattan Museum of Natural History which is now gathering dust. J. Messerschmidt for NY Post
But Native American groups told The Post they have heard nothing from the museum about returning items — not even a list of what the institution holds — despite its Cultural Resources Office saying it has begun consulting the 574 federally recognized tribes, as well as Native Hawaiian groups, state-recognized tribes and bands and other Native American groups.
The museum told The Post the objects that had been on display remain where they were, but with the doors on the galleries locked.
According to the head of the Association of American Indian Affairs, a Maryland-based nonprofit that represents native groups across the country, the museum has 2,039 Native American human remains and 3,884 funerary objects that are considered sacred.
“They have been among the biggest, most horrible holdouts of all of the institutions, and they are still woefully out of compliance,” said the association’s chief executive and attorney Shannon O’Loughlin.
This diorama using original Native American costumes and objects was part of the Hall of the Great Plains exhibit. It is now shuttered, but tribes say they have not been told anything about a consultation on repatriation. J. Messerschmidt for NY Post The now-shuttered Hall of Eastern Woodlands focused on tribal groups from what is now the eastern US and Canada. J. Messerschmidt for NY Post
Harvard University, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Chicago’s Field Museum have also been slow to act, she said.
“I have yet to hear from them,” said Crystal C’Bearing, deputy director of the Northern Arapaho Tribal Historic Preservation Office in Wyoming.
“We would like an updated inventory about what they have in their collection. We deal with a lot of museums, and they have been among the worst and really slow to respond. We’re waiting.”
Max Bear, the tribal historic preservation officer of the Cheyenne-Arapaho Tribes in Oklahoma, told The Post that he has been trying to get information from the American Museum of Natural History for at least a decade.
The displays also included dioramas portraying Native American life, and items such as dolls. J. Messerschmidt for NY Post
“Under the new … rules, we need to start a consultation process,” said Bear. “They have a lot of human remains in their collection, and they might not know where they came from. They might not know where most of their collection came from.”
“I reached out regularly to the museum, asking for an inventory,” said a member of the Kiowa Tribe in Oklahoma, who did not want to be identified.
“My feeling is that the museum just doesn’t know where to start in compiling their inventory. The collection was in bad condition, undervalued and under-maintained. I refused to take my children to see it when I was in New York.
“One of the problems is that their egos are so large that they just won’t admit that they have no idea about the artifacts in their collection,” said the Kiowa Tribe member.
Shannon O’Laughlin, the head of the Association of American Indian Affairs, slammed the American Museum of Natural History for its noncompliance on repatriation issues in the past. LinkedIn
O’Loughlin, of the Association of American Indian Affairs, said they were “starting to see a change” with Decatur, a former president of Ohio’s Kenyon College and a chemistry professor, who took over from longtime museum president Ellen Futter, who had ruled over the institution since 1993.
She took home nearly $12 million in her last year at the helm of the museum, which included deferred compensation, according to federal tax filings.
The repatriation process began in 1990 with the passage of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, which established rules for museums across the country to return sacred objects and human remains to tribal nations.
But the process has dragged on for decades, and in December, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland — the first Native American to hold the role — published the new rules to speed the process up.
Sean Decatur, the new president of the American Museum of Natural History, has promised to consult with native groups about repatriation. He took over as the museum’s president in April 2023. Getty Images for the American Museum of Natural History Ellen Futter ruled the American Museum of Natural History for decades. She took home nearly $12 million in compensation in 2022, the last year she served as the museum’s president. Patrick McMullan via Getty Images
Interior Department documents said museums and other institutions had “fallen short” in repatriating Native American items.
A spokeswoman for the American Museum of Natural History told The Post, “There are no updates at this point.
“The objects remain in the closed halls as next steps are decided on a case-by-case basis.”
In 2021, the museum said it gave back more than 120 items, including ceremonial objects, to the Tohono O’odham Nation in southwestern Arizona.
UPDATE: Two days after publication the AMNH reached out to highlight that the last recorded repatriation had not been in 2021 and that there were 12 repatriations, including of human remains, between 2022 and 2024 .
For the latest metro stories, top headlines, breaking news and more, visit nypost.com/metro/
Get updates delivered to you daily. Free and customizable.
It’s essential to note our commitment to transparency:
Our Terms of Use acknowledge that our services may not always be error-free, and our Community Standards emphasize our discretion in enforcing policies. As a platform hosting over 100,000 pieces of content published daily, we cannot pre-vet content, but we strive to foster a dynamic environment for free expression and robust discourse through safety guardrails of human and AI moderation.