The American Museum of Natural History has moved to remove thousands of human remains of Black and Indigenous people from its exhibits, per Pix11.
According to a letter by museum president Sean Decatur, the museum's current collection of over 12,000 skeletal remains was obtained through "extreme imbalances of power.”
“Moreover, many researchers in the 19th and 20th centuries then used such collections to advance deeply flawed scientific agendas rooted in white supremacy – namely the identification of physical differences that could reinforce models of racial hierarchy,” Decatur wrote in the letter.
Along with removing the remains from display, the museum is expanding its efforts to return them and other cultural items to descendant communities, the president said. Thus far, 1,000 human remains have been returned to their respective communities under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990, according to the letter.
Decatur also addressed the bodies of enslaved African Americans who were removed from a burial ground in Inwood during construction in the early 1900s.
“Removing these remains from their rightful burial place ensured that the denial of basic human dignity would continue even in death,” Decatur wrote.
Moving forward, the American Museum of Natural History said it won't collect human remains for its exhibits.
“We commit to the removal of human remains from public display, while continuing to display casts where appropriate to further the Museum’s education mission," a statement from the museum reads.
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