The University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign has initiated the repatriation process for a collection of 115 cultural artifacts, including spearheads, knives, tools, and a birch bark basket, to the Wabanaki tribes. These items, collected from burial sites in central and coastal Maine, were donated to the university’s natural history museum in the 1920s.
This move is part of a broader trend, as other institutions in Maine, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island have also begun returning cultural items to the Wabanaki tribes. The University of Maine, for example, recently identified hundreds of artifacts for repatriation. These actions are facilitated under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, reflecting an ongoing effort to rectify historical injustices.
