The Museum of Natural History (AMHN) in New York, an icon of the city, cinematographic inspiration for films such as Night at the Museum and the much more memorable The Wild Girl, an institution renowned for its studies and one of the great tourist attractions of Manhattan, a few months ago, launched a multimillion-dollar expansion that involved years and neighborhood protests.
Despite this effort, this Friday it announced that it is closing two of its main exhibition rooms dedicated to Native American objects.
The new federal government regulation, a set of policies updated by the Biden Administration that went into effect this month, requires museums to have the consent of tribes to display these pieces or conduct research on cultural elements that belong to them. The closure will leave a total of almost 1,000 m2 of exhibition space out of reach of visitors.
Although this affects other museums from coast to coast of the country, the impact of this stricter regulation is reflected dramatically in the response of the most important venue of all, the AMHN, on the Upper West Side, where it welcomes more than 4 .5 million visitors annually, making it one of the most visited in the world. Its anthropology department is one of the oldest and most prestigious in the United States, recognized for its pioneering work.
“The rooms we are closing contain artifacts from a time when museums like ours did not respect the values, perspectives and, indeed, the shared humanity of indigenous peoples,” wrote Sean Decatur, president of the institution, in the letter he addressed to his command team on Friday. “Actions that may seem sudden to some may seem long overdue to others,” he added.
The measure, advanced by The New York Times, will affect the spaces dedicated to the eastern forests and the great plains starting this weekend. In addition, a series of display cases presenting cultural objects from the natives included in their monumental collection will be covered to ensure that the new rules are complied with.
The museum explained that they could not offer a timetable for possible reopening once the objects removed from public view are reconsidered.
Decatur did acknowledge in statements to the Times that there will be pieces that will never be displayed again on its premises as a result of the consultation process with the natives.
All of these changes are due to the Biden Government's effort to accelerate the repatriation of indigenous remains in the possession of museums or universities, funerary objects and other sacred pieces. The matter began in 1990 with the protection and repatriation law, but the process ran aground on many occasions, amid criticism from the natives themselves for the slowness of its application and for being a law very susceptible to institutional resistance to comply with it.
The regulation implemented in January seeks to accelerate returns, with a period of five years to prepare the returns of remains and objects in the possession of others. The Natural History Museum initiative offers a first example of goodwill. In the affected collections there are pieces from various tribes, such as the Iroquois, the Arapahoes or the Cheyennes.
