The campus of Yale University is seen on Oct. 9 in New Haven, Conn. Jessica Hill/Associated Press

The set of human remains and other artifacts had been cataloged in the collection at Yale University’s Peabody Museum for decades.

So, why did it take so long for those items to be linked to and offered back to Wabanaki tribes in Maine?

Betsy Richards, executive director of the Abbe Museum in Bar Harbor, whose collection focuses on Wabanaki art and artifacts, said the answer is complex.

“It’s important to remember that this is super emotional work, and it’s happening continuously. I just think a lot of people don’t know about it,” she said. “But when we think about the law, there is the letter of the law and the spirit. And I think the focus on getting things home and leaving decisions to the nations themselves, that hasn’t always happened.”

The Native American Graves Repatriation Act, which passed in 1990, sets out a process for museums and other institutions to review their collections for any human remains found on tribal lands or associated funerary objects placed with or near remains as part of Native American death rites or ceremonies. If any of those items can be linked to specific tribes or nations that are still active, they are then offered for repatriation.

This month, Yale filed a required public notice that it had linked one set of remains, found in Deer Isle between 1948 and 1952 and donated to the museum in 1969, to one of the four federally recognized tribes in Maine: the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians, Mi’kmaq Nation, Penobscot Nation and the Passamaquoddy Tribe. Eight funerary items found at several sites also were linked to Wabanaki tribes.

A spokesman for the Yale museum declined to share details of how staff there worked to connect the items.

“We defer to a confidential process that respects tribal privacy,” Steve Scarpa said.

Similarly, Wabanaki Nations officials here either declined to discuss the effort to repatriate the items or did not respond to media inquiries. According to the federal notice, once a formal request for repatriation is made, the remains and objects could be returned as soon as Dec. 12.

The recent example suggests that the process and collaboration between cultural institutions and tribal nations is smooth, but in the 34 years since that law has been in place, that hasn’t always been the case.

Ryan Lolar, a lawyer with Drummond Woodsum in Portland who has worked with the Wabanaki Intertribal Repatriation Committee on repatriation of ancestors and funerary objects, said one of the challenges has been the staggering amount of time it can take for museums to do the work.

Some, though, have been resistant to letting items in their collection go, even if they have a sacred or ancestral connection to Indigenous tribes.

“I think it’s improving, and many of the larger museums at places like Yale and Harvard are making the effort now,” said Lolar, whose ancestors were members of both the Penobscot Nation and from Tobique First Nation (in New Brunswick, Canada). “One of the reasons there have been delays is because there just isn’t a strong enforcement mechanism built into the law.”

The Department of the Interior, which monitors compliance with federal law, does not conduct any inspections and investigates only when individuals or groups report that an institution has not complied. And even if a museum is found in noncompliance, it results only in a small fine.

Lolar was involved in a complex case recently involving remains held by Harvard Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology. The Wabanaki committee made a request to repatriate those remains, only to be told they didn’t have enough evidence to demonstrate ancestral or cultural lineage. Tribal officials were devastated but continued to make their case and, eventually, it paid off.

“That was a good example of a primary reason it can go wrong,” Lolar said. “A museum could in theory have incentive to say there is no affiliation.”

An investigation last year by ProPublica, which featured that case, found that many museums used their power and resources to delay returning remains and objects or to reject claims, while still technically complying with federal law. Although the Native American Graves Repatriation Act is meant to give Indigenous people the final say over ancestral remains, those decisions were instead being made by institutions.

“As more people are educated about this, I think it puts more pressure on museums,” Lolar said. “I don’t think it’s a coincidence that some larger social justice narratives have coincided with this.”

Added the Abbe Museum’s Richards: “I’m a great believer that laws have teeth when public sentiment is with them, and I think public sentiment has changed,” she said. “So, yes, it is a lot of work, but it’s the right work.”

The selection of Deb Haaland as secretary of the Department of Interior, the first-ever Native American appointed to a cabinet position, likely played a role in bringing increased awareness. New rules approved last year also set a more specific deadline. Museums now have five years to consult with tribes and determine cultural affiliation for the Native remains in their collections.

That means this likely won’t be the last time remains or objects are repatriated to Wabanaki Nations tribes. As of last year, Yale had repatriated the remains of about 500 Native people. About 600 sets of remains are still in the museum.

“I can express my deep personal hope when there comes a time when there is nothing left to repatriate but, given the backlog, this will be ongoing for a while,” Lolar said.

Any museum or institution in Maine that receives federal funds is governed by the Native American Graves Repatriation Act as well. In 2023, for instance, the Maine State Museum in Augusta conducted an inventory under the act of its human remains and associated funerary objects. It was determined that there was no cultural affiliation between them and any nation.

And this month, just two weeks after Yale’s museum filed its public notice, the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology linked an adult female cranium in its collection to one of the Wabanaki tribes in Maine. Those remains had been removed from a cemetery near the Androscoggin River prior to the Civil War and were initially held by Bowdoin College. Repatriation of those remains to affiliated tribes or lineal descendants could happen by early next year.

Richards is glad to see the process simplified and the tribes respected in the latest efforts at repatriation. And she hopes it helps bring more public awareness. Imagine, she said, if one of your own great-grandparent’s remains were held in a museum rather than a cemetery somewhere.

Susan Kaplan, professor of anthropology at Bowdoin College and director of the Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum and Arctic Studies Center on campus, said her museum has not repatriated any remains or items during her time there.

But she’s familiar with the federal law and agreed that many museums have not moved as quickly on repatriating, although that has started to shift. That shift, she said, also has helped to forge relationships between institutions and tribes that might not have existed prior.

For too long, Kaplan said, many museums defended their claims to remains and other items under the guise of “scientific curiosity.”

“But they were doing it in a very insensitive and arrogant way,” she said. “That’s not an acceptable attitude anymore.”