Context and Collaboration: The Maxwell's Repatriation to Jemez Pueblo

Summary

The Pueblo of Jemez and the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology have been working together since 2007 to document human skeletal remains in preparation for repatriation. Challenges presented in preparing for repatriation included a paucity of field notes and other records, as much of the material came to the Museum from 1930’s field schools, and a loss of information about which burial objects were originally with which burials. Despite these challenges, over 700 individual skeletons have been repatriated over the past five years. Coupled with a grant from National NAGPRA, the collaborative relationship developed over this period has allowed for an accurate estimate of the minimum number of individuals represented and a deeper understanding of the demography and health of Jemez’ ancestors. Despite reburial, the potential for future learning continues as the Museum curates samples for potential ancient DNA studies. These samples are curated at the Pueblo’s request and are owned by Jemez.

This poster will describe the working relationship between the two institutions, present a timeline of the repatriation process, and detail the information provided by the documentation of the human skeletal remains.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)   •
• NAGPRA and Beyond: successes and shared benefits of collaboration

Keywords

Spatial Coverage