These items and dozens more belong to clan members, not the Pennsylvania museum where they’ve been stored for decades, a federal committee ruled recently.
Marlene Johnson, a T’akdeintaan elder, has been trying to return the objects to Alaska ever since watching a slideshow of the collection in the mid-1990s.
“As long as there’s one of us around, it belongs to us,” she said.
The decision comes on the 20th anniversary of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, a federal law under which American Indians can claim human remains and cultural objects held by museums and federally funded agencies.
