Comanches Travel to United Kingdom for Artifact Repatriation

Martina Minthorn, Comanche Nation Historic Preservation Officer, Comanche Nation Museum and Cultural Center and Comanche tribal members traveled to the United Kingdom under NAGPRA to reclaim Comanche artifacts from museums and universities.

They achieved this through the Native American International Museum Exchange (NAME) program.

“This opportunity of the NAME program came about to be able to help tribes be able to get access to cultural items in different countries and to be able to foster that relationship with these universities and museums to be able to help start the repatriation process,” Minthorn said. “And so, this trip gave us the opportunity to be able to build relationships with these museums and to be able to open doors to actually seeing these collections. And so, we've had really good partnerships with all the various museums and libraries and universities there to be able to be able to see these items in person and also human remains. So, we have ancestors that had been performed a lot of research on over the numerous years and so we want to be able to claim those and to be able to bring them back to the United States and hopefully be able to put them to rest.”

She said the communities overseas were supportive of the Comanche artifacts being returned to the tribe.

“One of the items that we really are interested in is a buffalo shield. I think it was like from 1860s. Beautiful, good condition. And so, we want to be able to utilize that and that's one item that we think we'll be able to have a good rapport because it was a battle taken in battle. Another item is a beautiful painted buffalo hide,” Minthorn said. “And so, there's moccasins. We did see some Native American church items. We had seen some that were documented as Comanche, but when we actually see them in person, you know, we've seen pictures prior to, but actually seeing them up close determined that they weren't Comanche.”

She said the repatriation process can be long, depending on the entity, such as Oxford, but for others, not so much.

“Some of the items through Aberdeen in Scotland, they are really willing and ready to give us back our human remains, and so that might be like within six months, but the ones from Oxford that they have panels like every quarter,” Minthorn said. “So, we have to go through the various panels to be able to start that repatriation process, so might be up to a year to two years. So, that's how we're just really trying to start the paperwork now to be able to start getting those documented and the research on our end to put those claims in.”

She said these items are sometimes taken in battle and have been distributed across the globe throughout history, but Minthorn is determined to get as many as possible returned.