The Abbe Museum in Bar Harbor has begun the process of returning 16 cultural items in its collection to the Wabanaki tribes.
According to a notice under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), the museum said the items are burial offerings — including tools, fabric, and animal hide — likely excavated sometime in the late 1800s from sites in Orland Blue Hill.
Curator Aaron Miller said the museum has worked with the tribes to repatriate items before.
"Because [the museum's] early focus was really primarily on the archeology of the region, so many of those collections ended up here over the years," he said.
Miller said the museum has undertaken intensive reviews of its collection, but that these particular items were on loan, and weren't flagged until recently.
"These things turn up, so it's important to kind of continue to treat the collections with respect and understand that there may be sensitive materials," Miller said.
Miller said the museum is working with the Wabanaki Tribes of Maine Intertribal Repatriation Committee to return to artifacts.
The museum conducted a similar transfer in 2020.
