Alaska Natives seek return of property for museum at Yale

Monday, April 21, 2014  

The Yale Peabody Museum in Connecticut should return artifacts that were taken from a Tlingit village, an Alaska Native leader said.

Rosita Worl, the president of the Sealaska Heritage Institute, said the carvings of a bird and of a bear were taken without permission in 1899 during the Harriman expedition. She said the museum shouldn't wait for an official request under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act.

“The important thing is they can return it now; they don’t need to wait for a claim,” Worl told The Alaska Dispatch.

The Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes will be traveling to Connecticut to look at the museum's collection.

Get the Story:
Tribe seeks return of artifacts taken from abandoned Alaska village (The Alaska Dispatch 4/19)
Panel questions Peabody ownership (The Yale Daily News 4/21)

Yale University museum accused of stealing Tlingit artifacts (4/17)