On Thursday November 10th the Museum will be releasing information from a collection that is associated with Native American children in U.S. Indian Boarding Schools and other Indigenous relatives. This collection contains hair samples assembled by anthropologist George Edward Woodbury between 1930 – 1933 from across the world and donated to the Museum in 1935. The vast majority were taken from living people, including clippings of hair from approximately 700 Native American children attending U.S. Indian Boarding Schools. Many of these samples have the names of the children whose hair was taken, as well as their tribal affiliation. We estimate there are approximately 300 tribal nations represented in the total of 700 youth.
We recognize that for many Native American communities, hair holds cultural and spiritual significance and the Museum is fully committed to the return of hair back to families and tribal communities. This website makes available information on the collection, which includes the tribal affiliations of Native American individuals in the United States whose hair was taken, as well as the sites of collection, such as boarding schools, reservations, and museums.
The Peabody Museum apologizes to Indigenous families and tribal nations for our complicity in the objectification of Native peoples and for our more than 80-year possession of hair taken from their relatives.