Museum director who returned belts to Onondaga Nation passes

Wednesday, March 5, 2014  

Martin E. Sullivan, the former director of the New York State Museum who orchestrated the return of sacred wampum belts to the Onondaga Nation, died last week. He was 70.

Sullivan returned the 12 belts to the tribe in 1989. The transfer took place prior to the passage of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act in 1990.

"There is increasing recognition that in addition to our primary duty of preserving and interpreting objects, we also have a related duty to help preserve and nurture the cultures from which those objects come," Sullivan, who later served as the director of the Heard Museum in Arizona, told the New York Times.

Joe Heath, the general counsel for the tribe, said the state should be doing more to return the tribe's property.

Get the Story:
Martin Sullivan; returned sacred wampum (The Albany Times-Union 3/4)
Martin E. Sullivan, Portrait Gallery director who tried to widen museum’s perspective, dies (The Washington Post 3/1)