Two exhibit halls at the American Museum of Natural History in New York just closed permanently due to updated federal regulations regarding the display of certain Native American objects.
SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
Two exhibit halls at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City just closed permanently today because of updated federal regulations. It’s one of the most high-profile examples of museums across the country scurrying to cover display cases and take artifacts off of exhibit. But many are saying this is not a bad thing.
NPR’s Jennifer Francisco joins me to talk about all of this. She was at the museum yesterday, hours before the halls closed. Hey, Jennifer.
JENNIFER VANASCO, BYLINE: Hey, Scott.
DETROW: So let’s start with this. What are these new regulations?
VANASCO: Well, they’re an update of the 1990 Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act that took effect this month. And it basically says, if human remains or ceremonial objects or funeral objects were taken from tribal lands or federal lands, they need to be returned, but, of course, that is complicated. Museums have thousands of objects. An object I saw yesterday, a staff covered in otter skin – it was used for a ceremony – or, say, a medicine bag from a shaman – maybe those were collected, like, 150 years ago. And back then, they didn’t really care who an object belonged to. Or some people, I’m sure, cared, but a lot of people didn’t. So sometimes it’s hard to trace. So the museums still have a lot of these artifacts, and 30 years later, they have thousands of them.
DETROW: So we’re talking about a 1990 law here. What happened more recently? What happened in this update?
VANASCO: This update is extensive, but the key points are first, these objects can’t be on display or used for research unless there is consultation and explicit permission from the tribe they belong to. And second, the burden is now on the museums to reach out to…
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