Andover Newton Theological School Artefact Collection

“These objects embody the spirits of our ancestors [...]
The current generation is tied both to our ancestors and to our
future generations, so it basically ensures our cultural survival.”

Rosita Worl

Another 'Native artefact repatriation' featuring Rosita Worl, president of the Sealaska Heritage Institute, which represents several native Alaskan peoples: Malcolm Gay, 'Seminary eyes repatriation after clash over artifacts' Boston Globe  December 05, 2015

Federal officials have accused the Andover Newton Theological School of running afoul of the law in its handling of a collection of Native American and native Hawaiian cultural objects, the culmination of an institutional clash that brought to light a little known treasure trove of artifacts. Portions of the collection — owned by the seminary but housed by the Peabody Essex Museum since the 1940s — could now be returned to descendants and affiliated tribes for whom the objects have special cultural significance. In a letter to Andover Newton, the Department of the Interior charges that the school has failed to comply with the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, a 1990 law that seeks to return funerary objects, sacred items, and objects of cultural patrimony to their rightful tribal heirs. In a first step toward returning the objects to indigenous people, the officials have advised the Newton seminary to make a list of all the Native American cultural items in the collection and submit it to any tribe that may have an interest, as well as to federal officials. [...]  most of the Andover Newton collection was assembled in the 19th century through missionary work. Although the seminary and the Salem museum partnered for decades to care for the collection, the relationship began to sour in 2014, when Andover Newton began actively exploring the possibility of selling roughly 80 of the collection’s most valuable Native American items. For the museum, the prospect of a sale was troubling.

There are around 160 Native American and native Hawaiian objects in the roughly 1,100-piece collection, which also includes artifacts from other cultures. The collection is thought to contain objects associated with 52 Native American tribes and native Hawaiians, including many items that Worl said are no mere artifacts. The museum had earlier advised the school that only 10 Native American items in the collection were subject to the federal protection law.
Worl said  “I keep hoping these guys, who are supposedly Christian, would do the Christian thing and return these objects that they are holding illegally”.