The Changing Museum
Now Open
Included with any admission.
Floor 3
Find out about the past, present, and future of representing cultures at the American Museum of Natural History in the new exhibition The Changing Museum.
Why did two Native American Halls close?
In early 2024, the Museum closed the Eastern Woodlands and Great Plains halls in response to changes to the regulations that implement the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA)—and because they did not respect the values and perspectives of Indigenous peoples. The updated regulations now require consent from Indigenous communities to display, access, or research certain sensitive cultural items. Some of these items may have been included among the hundreds of items in the halls, prompting the closures.
"The halls we closed are vestiges of an era when museums such as ours did not respect the values, perspectives, and indeed shared humanity of Indigenous peoples. Actions that may feel sudden to some may seem long overdue to others."
– Sean Decatur, President, American Museum of Natural History
What is NAGPRA?
This 1990 law allows lineal descendants, federally recognized tribes, and Native Hawaiian Organizations in the U.S. to seek the return of cultural items and ancestral remains from institutions that receive government funding, including this one.
Items eligible for return under NAGPRA are:
- human remains
- burial objects
- sacred objects, needed for current religious practices
- objects of cultural patrimony (of such central importance that no individual had the right to remove them from the community)
Other items are not subject to return under NAGPRA, although they may be returned through other arrangements.
Addressing the Museum’s Collecting History
During the 19th and early 20th century, anthropologists, government agents, and even members of the public filled shelves of American universities and museums, including this one. Human remains and grave offerings were collected, along with oral histories, photos, body measurements, cultural objects of all kinds, and archaeological material. Viewed by today’s standards, these unethical collecting practices have necessitated the recent returns of human remains and certain cultural objects to descendant communities.
While the Museum’s collecting practices have changed, caring for, and sometimes returning, these invaluable historical collections remains an unfinished responsibility. Consultation is an ongoing endeavor, and the Cultural Resources Office facilitates repatriation activities for the Museum.
What Does Cultural Collaboration Look Like?
It starts with relationship-building. Repatriation visits, like the one shown in the video above, are opportunities to acknowledge and repair past wrongs.
Additionally, we can work to remake exhibits together. One model for collaborative storytelling can be seen in the renovated Northwest Coast Hall, which opened in 2022 after a five-year collaboration with nine Native Nations from the Pacific Northwest. The original 1899 exhibition was designed by Museum curator Franz Boas. Despite updates over the years, the old displays left the mistaken impression that the people and their traditions were gone.
The 2022 exhibition aims to show how Northwest Coast people still fight today to keep their languages and traditions alive despite centuries of government repression.
Museum collections can be invaluable resources for visiting community members. Indigenous artists, language keepers, historians, and others learn from community belongings cared for by the Museum. And the Museum acknowledges with gratitude the generous knowledge shared by visiting Indigenous delegations, which has greatly enhanced understanding of the Museum’s collections.
"Conserving museum belongings is like sitting down with an old friend or an ancestor. You ask, “How can I help you? What's hurting?” The field is recognizing that the intangible is just as important as the tangible. Collection care goes beyond physical care. How do you feed them? Are you making sure that they're with other ancestors from their communities? Are you singing to them, or are you having people come in and bless them or you?"
– Cheyenne Caraway (Choctaw/Chickasaw), Museum conservator
Visit The Changing Museum exhibition to explore more about this topic.
The Changing Museum is supported by the Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Foundation.
This webpage is supported by the Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Foundation.