Curation and Repatriation of Sacred and Tribal Objects

Abstract

FAR FROM THE SOURCES of many of its artifacts, the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) on the upper west side of Manhattan contains over a million items, making it one of the largest collections of North American tribal objects in the world. Begun at the end of the nineteenth century by the industrialist John Heye, the Heye Collection is distinguished not by its quality or its careful provenance, for both are lacking in the collection, but by the sheer volume of prehistoric and historic materials collected by scouts and buyers who roamed from Inuit villages on the Arctic Circle to tribal encampments on the tip of Tierra del Fuego.I Wampum belts, battle axes, bows, arrows, shields, beaded dresses and

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