The Cleveland Museum of Art is acknowledging new federal guidelines on the display of Native American artifacts by covering some items.
“A few” items in their galleries have been covered out of respect for Native American tribes while it's determined whether permission is needed to have them on view, according to an emailed statement. Human remains are not in the CMA collection.
A search of the museum's digital collection brings up close to 300 items labeled “Native North America.”
The Cleveland Museum of Natural History issued a statement that there are no Native American pieces on display, but they are “actively engaged in several projects that are advancing best practices for collections of human remains and associated cultural objects.”
The museum’s current transformation project is slated for completion in 2024, with more space for its archives and collection and several new galleries.
In Oberlin, pieces by Indigenous American artists on view at the Allen Memorial Art Museum "are either contemporary works, or works made for the tourist trade," according to a statement from the museum.
“The Allen does not have on view any items that would be considered as cultural items per the terms of the new NAGPRA regulations,” according to AMAM’s statement. “The museum's staff will continue to evaluate the Indigenous American items that are part of the collection, and will abide by the NAGPRA regulations.”
The revised guidelines went into effect Jan. 12 under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990. The U.S. Department of the Interior rules govern the repatriation of Native objects and ancestral remains. Its 2023 report on the NAGPRA program estimated that 10,894 human remains are still in collections in Ohio and have not been culturally affiliated with any present-day Indian tribe. Only Illinois has more, with 15,136. The Ohio History Connection holds the largest number of those remains nationally.
