The seven ancestors repatriated to the Oneida Indian Nation were removed from their burial sites in 1878 along with associated funerary objects at Brier Hill in Upstate New York’s St. Lawrence County by Samuel W. Garman. In 1870, Garman became the assistant director of herpetology and ichthyology at the Harvard University’s Museum of Comparative Zoology.
“There is much work to be done in righting the wrongs of the past, yet today, we came together with Harvard University to set a new course,” said Oneida Indian Nation Representative Ray Halbritter. “From ensuring that one day no Native American ancestors are insensitively displayed or forgotten in storage rooms to prioritizing our voices in discourses of history and culture, this is a unique opportunity to forge a better future as partners.”
It is not the first time that a museum repatriates such remains. In 2023, the Rochester Museum and Science Center in New York repatriated remains of 19 Oneida. They include those of five men, three women and two adolescent girls who lived sometime between 200 to 3,000 years ago. Plus a mix of pottery and other items traditionally buried with the dead.
