Several hundred cultural items and ancestral remains have been repatriated to the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians from the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard University and the Yale Peabody Museum — a moment that was years in the making.

Sacred and culturally significant items and remains arrived by truck at the Santa Ynez Chumash Museum and Cultural Center on June 27, marking a moment of healing and inspiration for the future. 

Kathleen Marshall, Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act representative, museum board chairwoman and lead language teacher for the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians, said the return of the items feels “rewarding.”

“It feels amazing,” Marshall said. “I think it’s bringing a lot of healing to our tribe to have the artifacts and the ancestors back home where they belong. It’s a beautiful moment.”

The remains of roughly 187 people were returned to the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians, along with more than 2,000 of their personal items and artifacts.

“Our people were buried with most of their belongings, so unfortunately, looters knew that burial sites were full of what they were looking for,” Marshall said. “So, there were a lot of personal items. There were a lot of stone bowls, a lot of pestles, effigies, arrows, just things that belonged to the individuals that meant something to them.”

The repatriation followed two separate Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act notices issued by Harvard and Yale and years of consultation and collaboration between the tribe and both institutions.

The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act was enacted in 1990 to establish a process for federally recognized tribes to seek the return of human remains, funerary objects and sacred objects held by institutions receiving federal funding.

Marshall said the process included a lot of hard conversations, but they ended up with a good and transparent relationship with both institutions. 

Jane Pickering, the William and Muriel Seabury Howells director of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard University, said it was “an honor” to work with the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians on the repatriation.

“We are tremendously grateful for their generosity and trust as we worked through the process to return these important items home,” Pickering said. “The Peabody Museum is committed to conducting repatriations in ways that help heal the wounds of historical trauma and with a deeper understanding of our responsibilities to tribal communities past, present and future.”

The process included many hours of consultation about the artifacts, learning where they came from and going through inventory that hadn’t been touched in many years.

Jessie Cohen, assistant director of repatriation at Yale Peabody Museum, said it was the museum’s largest repatriation of cultural items to date.

“Over the past four years, the Yale Peabody Museum has had the unique privilege of consulting with the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians towards this repatriation,” Cohen said. “Through open and honest collaboration, the tribe and museum engaged in consultations leading to the museum’s largest repatriation of cultural items to date. The removal of these materials from traditional Chumash homelands has caused trauma and harm, and we hope their return brings healing to the tribe.”

Marshall said she hopes this repatriation inspires other tribes, when they’re ready, to seek the return of their own cultural items. 

“It takes a lot of time, a lot of effort. It takes money,” Marshall said. “A lot of tribes aren’t ready, but when they are, they definitely need to know that they have a seat at the table, and that our cultural knowledge plays a huge part in bringing back these artifacts and these items.”

She added that she hopes other institutions follow the example set by Harvard and Yale.

“Harvard and Yale are very big institutions, very well known, and it’s important that all other institutions follow suit and understand that they did the right thing in returning all these items and all these people,” Marshall said. 

The remains and artifacts will be buried as close as possible to their original burial sites. Marshall said that many original burial sites have been developed and built over, but they hope to get as close as possible.