The Peabody Museum at Harvard University is committed to the return of hair to families and Tribal Nations.
The first phase of fulfilling this commitment included communication with Tribal officials. The museum did not release details of the individuals to the public; however, this information was shared with Tribal officials.
The second phase is the return of hair clippings to lineal descendants and Tribal Nations. On November 30, 2022, after review, the Department of the Interior informed the museum that the collection is subject to the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA). We are working with the Department of the Interior’s National NAGPRA Program on implementation of the NAGPRA process with respect to the Woodbury Collection. The museum and the Department are committed to a partnership with the aim of a respectful, effective, and efficient returns process, while still following the requirements of the regulations.
The current process for returns can be found under Returns through NAGPRA.
Secretary Deb Haaland announced the Indian Boarding School Initiative in 2021, stating that “the legacy of Indian boarding schools remains, manifesting itself in Indigenous communities through intergenerational trauma, cycles of violence and abuse, disappearance, premature deaths, and other undocumented bodily and mental impacts.”
In May 2022, the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative Investigative Report was published, noting that the Federal Indian boarding school system consisted of 408 Federal schools across 37 states or then-territories, including 21 schools in Alaska and 7 schools in Hawaii established between 1819-1969.
The report clearly states the suffering and abuse that occurred in the Federal Indian boarding school system, including:
The Federal Indian boarding school system deployed systematic militarized and identity-alteration methodologies to attempt to assimilate American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian children through education, including but not limited to the following: (1) renaming Indian children from Indian to English names; (2) cutting hair of Indian children; (3) discouraging or preventing the use of American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian languages, religions, and cultural practices; and (4) organizing Indian and Native Hawaiian children into units to perform military drills (page 7, emphasis added).
The hair samples collected and accumulated by George Woodbury, in collaboration with Federal agents, boarding school administrators, and others, are a part of that history of abuse. The return of hair back to lineal descendants and Tribal Nations supports the goals of the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition to address historical and intergenerational trauma and encourage continued mourning and healing for survivors and their families.