The Abbe Museum in Bar Harbor, Maine, is repatriating 17 items—including a human tooth and funerary objects such as tools, animal hides, and fabric—to the Wabanaki Nations, a confederation of four local tribes (Penobscot Nation, Passamaquoddy Tribe, Mi’kmaq Nation, and Houlton band of Maliseet Indians). The objects, many excavated by Warren K. Moorehead in the late 19th century, passed through the R.S. Peabody Museum, the Bangor Historical Society, and the Abbe Museum, with some lost due to undocumented loans. A Field Register notice from the National Park Service, published September 11, 2025, details their complex provenance. The repatriation is set to occur on or after October 14, 2025.
This repatriation matters because it reflects a growing institutional commitment to returning ancestral remains and cultural objects to Indigenous communities, aligning with federal laws like NAGPRA. The Abbe Museum, whose board is majority Wabanaki and includes a separate Wabanaki Council, is actively reviewing its collection to identify and return items belonging to local tribes. The case highlights the challenges of provenance tracking, especially when objects have been moved across multiple institutions and lost in unrecorded loans, and underscores the importance of tribal sovereignty and self-determination in museum practices.