Tribe Will Sue Harvard for Burial Remains

The Narragansett Indian tribe will soon file a lawsuit against Harvard to recover tribal remains currently displayed in the University's Peabody museum, a Narragansett official said yesterday.

John Brown, historic preservation officer for the Narragansett Tribe said yesterday evening that the issue "is in the process of being taken to the courts."

"We are trying to bring Harvard up on federal charges," he said.

The Narragansett will make its claim under the 1990 Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), which requires museums such as Harvard's Peabody to repatriate American Indian remains to federally recognized tribes.

Harvard spokesperson Joe Wrinn said the University would not comment on what he said presently amounts to the possibility of a lawsuit.

"It sounds like just a threat," Wrinn added.

Rubie S. Watson, director of the Peabody Museum, said the issue with the Narragansetts is complicated.

"It has to do with traditional territory of the tribe and its extent," she said.

Watson said that museum officials, tribe members and the U.S. Department of the Interior have been working together to determine the rightful heirs of the remains in dispute--which include human remains and religious objects.

Brown said he was unpleased with Harvard's efforts to resolve the dispute thus far.

"Harvard is an entity of the elite, at least that's how they think of themselves," he said. "They are only willing to work with you if you work by their rules."

According to University Attorney Alan A. Ryan, Harvard had planned to divide the artifacts in question between the Narragansett and Wampanoag tribes.

Watson said she has met with members of the Narragansett tribe on four occasions, but admitted that the tribe representatives were unsatisfied by the progress they had made.

"[The tribe] would like this to move much more quickly," she said.

Watson said resolution is slow in coming because the dispute regards "cultually un-identifiable objects" about which "the museum does not have sufficient documentation."

Though Narragansett tribe members are pressuring the museum to quicken the process of identification, Watson said that the museum has done all it can to identify the remains.

The museum, like the Narragansett tribe, is now "waiting for the Department of the Interior to create regulations" regarding this issue, Watson said.

This is not the first such dispute for the Peabody Museum. Even before Congress passed NAGPRA, the museum had begun repatriating sacred objects to American Indian tribes.

The museum returned a collection to the Pecos Indians in New Mexico last year in compliance with NAGPRA.

Barbara Isaac, assistant director of the Peabody, told the Associated Press the museum has spent $7 million on repatriation issues so far. Last year, the museum's repatriation staff was expanded from four to 20.

"Peabody has an enormous amount of remains, sacred objects that are covered by federal legislation," Ryan said.

The museum has been collecting archaeological remains for more than 125 years, however, and many items cannot be specifically linked to a tribe or location.

The museum obtained most of its artifacts through excavation. Though many remains have never been researched, others have been used "to collect important information about diet, osteoporosis, and arthritis," Watson said.

Watson noted that, while further research could have been conducted on the Pecos collection, none is currently being undertaken on the Narragansett bones.

Ryan said Harvard is "not reluctant" to return remains in its possession, but instead wants to be sure it makes fair decisions.

Ryan suggested that the remains could perhaps be given en masse to an umbrella organization of American Indian tribes.

Ryan, who said he has worked on repatriation issues for more than 10 years, since before NAGPRA was passed, emphasized the museum's awareness of the issue's delicacy.

"We understand completely that this is a sensitive, emotional, important issue," he said.

Ryan said he was unaware of the current stance of the Wampanoag tribe, to whom the Peabody had planned to repatriate some of the remains.

Wampanoag Chair Beverly Wright was unavailable for comment.