Yale University museum accused of stealing Tlingit artifacts

Thursday, April 17, 2014  

The Yale Peabody Museum is displaying artifacts that were stolen from a Tlingit village, The New Haven Independent reports.

Yale University junior Ashley Dalton said the carvings of a bird and of a bear were taken without permission in 1899 during the Harriman expedition. She called on the museum to return them to the Saanya Kwaan Tribe.

The museum has been contacted by the tribe but hasn't received a request to return the items, director Derek E.G. Briggs told the paper. Any request would be handled under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, he said.

In 2001, the tribe received some artifacts that were stolen during the Harriman expedition.

Get the Story:
Yale Faces New Claims Of Stolen Artifacts (The New Haven Independent 4/16)