Researchers at the Yale Peabody Museum at Yale University have linked human remains found in Hancock County to the Wabanaki Nations, and according to the Federal Register, those remains and several cultural items will be returned to Maine next month. Jessica Hill/Associated Press

Researchers at Yale University’s Peabody Museum have linked human remains found in Hancock County more than 70 years ago to the Wabanaki Nations.

According to an item published Tuesday in the Federal Register – the government’s official journal – those remains, as well as several cultural items, could be returned to Maine next month.

The remains were found between 1948 and 1952 under a shell mound on Oak Point in Deer Isle by H. Gordon Rowe and donated to the Yale museum in 1969 by his wife.

As part of a recent inventory under the National American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990, the museum determined that the individual was of Wabanaki ancestry.

Additionally, eight cultural items that had been in possession of the museum – including gouges and spearheads – were determined to be connected to the Wabanaki Nations and also will be repatriated. Some of those items were found more than a century ago by archaeologist Warren K. Moorehead at sites in Knox and Penobscot counties.

The items were classified as “unassociated funerary objects,” which means they were placed with or near human remains as part of Native American death rites or ceremonies.

The federal law was established to provide a process for institutions such as museums to return any Indigenous artifacts or remains to tribes that claim them. It’s a formal recognition that items should be returned to original owners and that institutions continually assess their collections in an effort to identify additional items.

The are four federally recognized tribes in Maine: Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians, Mi’kmaq Nation, Penobscot Nation, and the Passamaquoddy Tribe.

Repatriation of the remains and items is scheduled to occur on or after Dec. 12, pending requests from the affiliated tribes or any lineal descendants. The museum is responsible for determining the most appropriate requestor if competing repatriation requests are received. It wasn’t clear exactly how that would happen, though, and museum officials did not respond to inquiries Tuesday afternoon.

Maulian Bryant, Penobscot Nation ambassador and executive director of the Wabanaki Alliance, said in an email Tuesday that she was not aware of the recent news out of Yale but forwarded it to the Tribal Historic Preservation Office.

The Maine State Museum in Augusta conducted a similar inventory in 2023 under the National American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of its human remains and associated funerary objects. It was determined that there was no cultural affiliation between them and any tribe.

In another instance, tribes in Maine attempted to repatriate remains that had been held by Harvard University’s Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, but that request was denied on the grounds that the tribes did not present enough evidence that they could be tied to any ancestors.

That case was featured last year in an investigation by ProPublica that found elite museums used their clout and resources to exploit loopholes in the national law and delay returning remains and artifacts.