Posted on Sep 9, 2023
After reckoning over Smithsonian's 'racial brain collection,' woman's brain returned
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https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2023/09/08/smithsonian-returns-native-womans-brain/ [login to see] 7/
The brain of an Alaska woman who died nearly a century ago was finally returned to her burial site after the Smithsonian Institution released it from its collection.
Relatives of Mary Sara, an 18-year-old Sami woman who died from tuberculosis in 1933, gathered at her burial plot in Seattle late last month to bury her brain with the rest of her remains, the Washington Post reports. Martha Sara Jack, Sara's cousin, traveled with her husband Fred from Wasilla, Alaska, along with Rachel Twitchell-Justiss, a distant cousin from Spokane, Washington.
After Sara died under his care, Dr. Charles Firestone removed her brain without her family's consent and sent it to Ales Hrdlicka, an anthropologist who believed in the superiority of white people and was also the curator of physical anthropology at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, according to the Post.
The brain of an Alaska woman who died nearly a century ago was finally returned to her burial site after the Smithsonian Institution released it from its collection.
Relatives of Mary Sara, an 18-year-old Sami woman who died from tuberculosis in 1933, gathered at her burial plot in Seattle late last month to bury her brain with the rest of her remains, the Washington Post reports. Martha Sara Jack, Sara's cousin, traveled with her husband Fred from Wasilla, Alaska, along with Rachel Twitchell-Justiss, a distant cousin from Spokane, Washington.
After Sara died under his care, Dr. Charles Firestone removed her brain without her family's consent and sent it to Ales Hrdlicka, an anthropologist who believed in the superiority of white people and was also the curator of physical anthropology at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, according to the Post.
After reckoning over Smithsonian's 'racial brain collection,' woman's brain returned
Posted from usatoday.com
Native Americans
Museums
Anthropology
Seattle
Posted 8 mo ago
Responses: 3
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Sadly, there are far too many early inhabitants bones and other articles in the hands of museums, schools, and private collectors.
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PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
..."Only four brains in the Smithsonian of the 255 still kept are documented as coming from people or families who consented to the donation, according to records uncovered by the Post. The majority of the brains were taken from the bodies of Black and Indigenous people without the consent of their families, the Post report found."
..."Only four brains in the Smithsonian of the 255 still kept are documented as coming from people or families who consented to the donation, according to records uncovered by the Post. The majority of the brains were taken from the bodies of Black and Indigenous people without the consent of their families, the Post report found."
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PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
..."After Sara died under his care, Dr. Charles Firestone removed her brain without her family's consent and sent it to Ales Hrdlicka, an anthropologist who believed in the superiority of white people and was also the curator of physical anthropology at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, according to the Post.
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“Without the knowledge or consent from her family, Dr. Firestone maliciously desecrated Mary’s young body,” Jack told the Post. “Now, 90 years later, Mary’s body will be made whole and laid to rest until the Resurrection.”
Attempts to reach Sara's family for comment were unsuccessful."
..."After Sara died under his care, Dr. Charles Firestone removed her brain without her family's consent and sent it to Ales Hrdlicka, an anthropologist who believed in the superiority of white people and was also the curator of physical anthropology at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, according to the Post.
Start the day smarter. Get all the news you need in your inbox each morning.
“Without the knowledge or consent from her family, Dr. Firestone maliciously desecrated Mary’s young body,” Jack told the Post. “Now, 90 years later, Mary’s body will be made whole and laid to rest until the Resurrection.”
Attempts to reach Sara's family for comment were unsuccessful."
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