For Immediate Release Contact: Greg Borzo (312) 665-7100 (For Media Use Only) gborzo@fieldmuseum.org Field Museum to return human remains to Native American tribe Dance, ceremony, press conference at The Field Museum will commemorate repatriation of Haida ancestors to Canada Friday, Oct. 17, 2003, 10:00 a.m. – 12:30 Christian White, Haida master carver, works on a traditional bentwood box for transporting and burying Haida ancestors, while assistant Alan Weir and Lucille Bell, heritage officer of the Haida Repatriation Committee, look on. A larger image is available, please contact Greg Borzo for details. CHICAGO – After preserving the remains of approximately 150 Haida for more than a century, The Field Museum is returning the human remains to Old Massett and Skidegate on Haida Gwaii (“hy-da gwy”)/Queen Charlotte Islands for reinterment in their ancestral Haida homeland. A delegation of about 30 Haida will travel to Chicago to receive the remains. A ceremony will be held at the Museum Friday, Oct. 17, to commemorate the return of the Haida ancestors. Afterwards, the Haida will accompany their ancestors to their final resting place on Haida Gwaii/Queen Charlotte Islands off the coast of British Columbia. This will mark the largest repatriation of Haida remains from the United States. It is also the first international repatriation conducted by the Museum, which is voluntarily returning these ancestral remains. “We are not required by law to repatriate these remains, but we are doing so because we believe it is the right thing to do, ethically,” says Helen Robbins, the Museum’s repatriation specialist. The remains were taken from graves in Haida villages during three field expeditions between 1897 and 1903. The villages appeared to have been abandoned due to widespread population decimation caused by an outbreak of small pox. Following common museum practice at that time, the anthropologists were collecting and preserving specimens from a group of people that were thought to be dying out. Continue