Oneida Indian Nation Homelands (December 4, 2024) – A delegation of Oneida Indian Nation leaders joined representatives of Harvard University Tuesday, Dec. 3 for the repatriation of seven Oneida Indian Nation ancestors and associated funerary objects at the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology. Oneida Indian Nation Representative Ray Halbritter, Harvard Law School’s Interim Dean and Carter Professor of General Jurisprudence John C.P. Goldberg and William and Muriel Seabury Howells Director of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology Jane Pickering all took part in the event.
The ancestors repatriated to the Oneida Indian Nation were removed from their burial sites in 1878 along with associated funerary objects at Brier Hill in Upstate New York’s St. Lawrence County by Samuel W. Garman. In 1870, Garman became the assistant director of herpetology and ichthyology at the university’s Museum of Comparative Zoology.
“There is much work to be done in righting the wrongs of the past, yet today, we came together with Harvard University to set a new course,” said Oneida Indian Nation Representative Ray Halbritter. “From ensuring that one day no Native American ancestors are insensitively displayed or forgotten in storage rooms to prioritizing our voices in discourses of history and culture, this is a unique opportunity to forge a better future as partners.”
“For more than 20 years, Harvard Law School has enjoyed a special relationship with the Oneida Indian Nation,” said John C.P. Goldberg, Interim Dean of Harvard Law School. “Our Oneida professors have ensured that cutting-edge research on American Indian law is taking place here, and that Harvard law students have the opportunity to learn about this body of law from the world’s leading authorities. We are so grateful to the Oneida Indian Nation and to Representative Ray Halbritter for making this possible.”
Tuesday’s event is the result of a three-year dialogue between the Oneida Indian Nation and Harvard University that began in 2021. At that time, Nation representatives reached out to establish affiliation and confirm details about remains and culturally significant objects within the university’s collections, specifically those taken from its ancestral homelands in Upstate New York. This ongoing dialogue will continue in the months to come as Harvard University and the Oneida Indian Nation work together to identify other remains and culturally significant artifacts within the museum’s collections and restore them to the Oneida people.
Repatriations have been a cornerstone of the Oneida Indian Nation’s cultural preservation efforts for many years. In recent history, Oneida Indian Nation ancestors, sacred and funerary objects and cultural artifacts have been restored to the Nation from institutions such as the American Museum of Natural History, Cornell University, Colgate University and the Rochester Museum & Science Center (RMSC). Partnerships between the Oneida Indian Nation and leading cultural and educational institutions such as these play an important role in forming productive relationships between tribal communities and cultural institutions and affirming the sovereignty and dignity of Native people.