July 2024 Update from the President

Letter from President Sean Decatur to Museum Staff
07.25.24

Dear Colleagues,

Nine months ago, I wrote to you about our shared responsibility to address the historical legacy of natural history museums, including our own, starting with revising our approach to human remains stewardship. Shortly thereafter, following the update of Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) regulations in January, I wrote to you to share our decision to close the Halls of Eastern Woodlands and Great Plains.

Since that time, many of our colleagues have been advancing this work, and much of this effort has been behind the scenes, out of view from regular Museum visitors and indeed many staff. Going forward, I will update you on a semi-annual basis, beginning with this overview of the work that departments across the Museum have conducted over the past year, as well as with a preview of projects that will be coming online in the fall:

Ancestral remains

• The important work of our Cultural Resources Office continues, and so far in 2024, the Museum has held more than 400 consultations, with approximately 50 different stakeholders, including hosting seven visits of Indigenous delegations and eight completed repatriations. As you may know, since the initial implementation of NAGPRA in 1990, the Museum has repatriated more than 1,000 ancestral remains and more than 2,300 objects. A full list of repatriations can be found on amnh.org/repatriation.
• As you may remember, the Museum holds the remains of approximately 12,000 individuals, which represent communities in both the U.S. and around the world. We are making progress on updating housing for the human remains collections, a project we began in October 2023, which includes fitting out a new facility on the fifth floor.
• We are in the process of scoping and hiring for several additional positions for repatriation and consultation activities. We welcomed two new staff last month who will assist with the project to improve housing for the human remains collections. In addition, Katie Sabella has moved into a new role, Director of Collections Programs, and will be supporting this important work in addition to other cultural stewardship initiatives, and another individual has accepted a job in the Cultural Resources Office and will be joining the Museum shortly.
• While caring for the remains is an urgent and important need, the ultimate goal—indeed, our ethical and at times legal responsibility—is to return ancestral remains to their descendant communities. About 25% of the human remains are individuals who are ancestral to Native Americans from within the United States, and of these, approximately 1,700 remains were previously designated culturally unidentifiable, meaning the Museum did not have enough information to confirm the necessary shared group identity with a lineal descendant, federally recognized Tribe, or a Native Hawaiian Organization. We have now started a review of available information connected with those Native American and Native Hawaiian ancestral remains and renewed consultation in line with updated regulations, in order to identify potential new pathways to affiliation and repatriation.

Sacred objects, funerary objects, and objects of cultural patrimony

• We began a mailing to federally recognized Tribes and Native Hawaiian Organizations to invite additional consultation on sacred objects, funerary objects, and objects of cultural patrimony associated with their communities. This is a complement to our ongoing consultative process, and a way to seek new opportunities to work with communities, while also advancing our work under the new regulations. While the Museum has previously contacted these groups, some are not in current consultations with us, so re-engagement is a critical step.
• We have also created a dedicated email address, [email protected], for Tribes, lineal descendants, and Native Hawaiian Organizations to reach out with inquiries if they have questions independent of the Museum’s ongoing outreach.
• In recognition of the scale of these efforts, both for museums and for the Tribes and Native Hawaiian Organizations, the updated NAGPRA regulations allow several years for reviews and consultations, and we will be engaged in this work for the foreseeable future.

Exhibition and education initiatives

In addition, beginning this October, in line with our goal of developing more inclusive approaches to cultural storytelling at the Museum, we will launch a set of programming to address the closure of the halls for our visitors:

• A new field trip experience: Education is developing an experience, with advisors from the Haudenosaunee community, to serve New York City students and teachers, thousands of whom visited the Hall of Eastern Woodlands annually to support learning about Native New York and the Haudenosaunee nations, part of New York State curriculum requirements for 4th grade. This experience will be ready to welcome students beginning in mid-October, and we are estimating that we will be able to serve about 1,200 students this year.
• An exhibit about the changing representations of culture: This graphic panel exhibit, which will be installed near the entrance to the closed Hall of Eastern Woodlands, will provide visitors with information about the history and impact of NAGPRA, why the Halls of Eastern Woodlands and Great Plains have closed, and changes in how the Museum approaches cultural storytelling. It will feature the voices and perspectives of members of Indigenous communities and other experts, with oversight by an outside Indigenous advisor and David Hurst Thomas, curator.
• A new webpage on amnh.org: This resource will support visitors in learning more about this new educational experience for school groups, the new exhibition and other exhibitions that connect to cultural storytelling, and other work the Museum is undertaking as part of our engagement with Native communities. A new video about the Haudenosaunee today, produced by a Haudenosaunee filmmaker, will be featured in addition to updates about future work, including semi-annual updates.

The work ahead

Our strategic plan envisions piloting other work in this area, and our colleagues in Exhibition are currently developing other ideas for interventions in our cultural halls. I anticipate that we will have more to share on those efforts soon.

Looking even farther into the future, many have asked how the galleries that housed the Halls of Eastern Woodlands and Great Plains will be used going forward. I anticipate that we will develop various proposals—in collaboration with Indigenous communities—that will have direct bearing on how those gallery spaces are used in the longer term.

As I’ve expressed before, the work before us will not be completed in a matter of months or even a few years. But, thanks to the efforts of many across the Museum and outside advisors, we will continue to move forward on lasting and substantive changes to our policies, practices, and approaches.

I will include more news in our next all-staff meeting, shortly after Labor Day. In the meantime, thank you all for your efforts to advance the Museum forward.

Sean