After decades, U of M is finally on track to return Native burial objects dug up in 1920s

Nine decades after the founder of the University of Minnesota's anthropology department dug up more than 2,000 Native objects in New Mexico, the university is finally taking concerted action to bring them home.

The university's Weisman Art Museum has come under particular fire for dragging its feet on the process, launched 30 years ago when Congress passed the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), requiring federally funded institutions to return Native remains and sacred objects to tribes.

The pace accelerated after the retirement in June of longtime Weisman director Lyndel King, who had argued that such objects should remain in museums even as she took steps to comply with the law.

https://www.startribune.com/after-decades-u-of-m-is-finally-on-track-to-return-native-burial-objects-dug-up-in-1920s/600005642/