The University of Maine’s Anthropology Department has identified hundreds of Wabanaki burial artifacts and the physical remains of at least 26 individuals in its collection. The process of returning them to the tribes in accordance with federal law could begin next month.
The human remains and cultural artifacts were removed from multiple burial locations, mostly along the coast or near the Penobscot River, according to a notice filed this month in the Federal Register.
Some of the sites are estimated to be thousands of years old. Many were excavated in the second half of the 20th century.
A total of 532 objects in the university’s collection include bone fragments, pigment samples, gouges, hammerstones, other tools and funerary items.
According to the notice, the university will begin repatriating the items to the Wabanaki tribes as soon as next month.
Last year, museums and universities in Maine, Massachusetts and Rhode Island filed similar notices under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, but the number of items to be returned was generally far smaller than the UMaine collection.
This story appears through a media partnership with Maine Public.