The Smithsonian Institution has finally returned the brain of a dead teenager to her surviving relatives, 90 years after it was reportedly taken without her knowledge for controversial racial research.
When Mary Sara, an 18-year-old Mari Indian girl, died of tuberculosis in Seattle in 1933, her doctor mailed her brain to a Smithsonian anthropologist for his “racial brain collection,” according to the Washington Post.
There is no record of his family giving consent, and they only discovered it was missing when the DC document revealed that at least 30,700 human remains were being held in a Maryland storage facility for the Museum of Natural History.
The family requested to recover the brain, which an employee flew from DC to Seattle on August 28.
The brain, soaked in preservatives inside a sealed container, was then transferred to a padded wooden box and buried with the rest of her the next day.
“It’s a big burden that’s been lifted,” his cousin Martha Sara Jack told the Washington Post after the ceremony at Evergreen Washelli Cemetery. “There are no more loose ends in this part.”
Sara’s brain had been sent to Ales Hrdlicka, the then-curator of the Smithsonian’s physical anthropology division, who was known for believing in white supremacy, the outlet said.
Mary Sara died of tuberculosis in a Seattle sanatorium in 1933, and the doctor treating her removed her brain and mailed it to then-curator of the Smithsonian’s division of physical anthropology, Ales Hrdlicka. The Washington Post via Getty Images
The family gathered at Evergreen Washelli Cemetery in Washington state on August 29 to bury the brain. The Washington Post via Getty Images
Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie Bunch III recently called that work the institution’s “darkest history.”
“It was abhorrent and dehumanizing work, and it was carried out under the name of the Smithsonian,” he wrote last month.
“I condemn these past actions and apologize for the pain caused by Hrdlicka and others at the institution who acted unethically in the name of science, regardless of the era in which their actions occurred.”
Sara was originally from Alaska, but traveled to Washington State in 1933 to support her mother, who underwent cataract surgery there. She intended to return home and marry her childhood sweetheart, but she fell ill with tuberculosis and died in a sanatorium where she spent her 18th birthday.
Firestone sent the brain to DC, where Hrdlicka would keep it as part of his “racial brain collection.” Smithsonian Institution Archives
Then her mother’s ophthalmic surgeon, Dr. Charles Firestone, offered the dead teenager’s brain to Hrdlicka, who said he was only interested in whether Sara was “full-blooded,” meaning her parents were Sami, a indigenous people of Norway, Sweden and Finland. said the Washington Post.
When Firestone responded yes, he sent the brain to DC, where Hrdlicka would keep it.
“Without the knowledge or consent of her family, Dr. Firestone maliciously desecrated Mary’s young body,” Jack, her cousin, said at the funeral.
“Now, 90 years later, Mary’s body will be healed and buried until the Resurrection.”
The same day Sara died, her doctor, Charles Firestone, approached Hrdlicka to ask if she wanted the brain. Smithsonian Institution Archives
The National Museum of Natural History said it was an honor to return Sara’s brain to her family.
“Our museum community remains committed to addressing the historical legacy given to us and will continue to work with descendants and descendant communities to return or appropriately honor the people now in our care,” said spokesman Jim Wood.
Sara’s brain was the fifth to be returned to families or tribes, leaving another 254, according to the newspaper.
The other four brains were repatriated to Native American families or communities under federal law, which requires the Smithsonian to notify Native American, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian communities about remains in its possession.
Martha Sara (right), Mary Sara’s first cousin, and Rachel Twitchell-Justiss, Sara’s distant cousin, lower the brain into their cousin’s unmarked grave. The Washington Post via Getty Images
The last brain to be returned was sent to a Tlingit family in Sitka, Alaska, in 2007, according to the report. In the last three decades, some 6,300 remains have also been returned.
Last year, the Smithsonian adopted a policy formally authorizing all of its museums to return items or remains from their collections that had been obtained without consent.
But officials told the Washington Post that they were primarily focused on returning Native American remains, leaving about 15,000 sets of remains from more than 80 countries in limbo.
In April, Bunch publicly apologized and announced the creation of a task force to determine next steps for human remains still in the institution’s custody.
Last year, the Smithsonian adopted a policy formally authorizing all of its museums to return items or remains from their collections that had been obtained without consent. Getty Images
He said he was in talks with the Philippine government to determine what to do with the remains of Filipinos who had been part of the collection.
The National Museum of the Philippines said it “accepts and supports this effort by the Smithsonian to do the right thing and facilitate the return of these Filipino remains home as a way to rectify this unfortunate situation.”
Rachel Twitchell-Justiss, Sara’s distant cousin, said she hopes the return of her relative’s brain can encourage the Smithsonian to act more quickly in repatriating the remains of other families and communities.
“I hope the museum takes great strides to deliver on its promises to do better,” he said. “If they can do it in honor of Mary, then all the better.”
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Source: vtt.edu.vn