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Arsenic Contamination of Museum Artifacts Repatriated to a Native American Tribe
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To the Editor: The 1990 Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA)1 provides for the inventory and return of human remains, funerary objects, sacred objects, and objects of cultural patrimony to Native Americans, Alaskan Natives, and Native Hawaiians. Many objects, such as full head masks, have already been returned. However, concerns have arisen about risk of exposure to museum-applied pesticides (eg, arsenic, mercury, organophosphates, carbamates, organochlorines, and volatiles).
We evaluated 3 ceremonial objects repatriated under NAGPRA. The tribe's cultural preservation office requested that we neither describe the objects nor provide details of their cultural use. To our knowledge, this is the first report of a chemical analysis of repatriated artifacts.
Methods
Three objects were analyzed. Each was made of leather, with attached grasses, corn husks, feathers, horsehair, yarn, and paint. Associated museum catalog records were reviewed for evidence of pesticide use.
Samples were taken of adherent debris and representative surface . . . [Full Text of this Article]
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