A museum in Bar Harbor, Maine dedicated to the art, culture and heritage of the Wabanaki country is repatriating 17 items to the Native American Federation. (The four local countries are the Penobscot Nation, Passamaquoddy Tribe, Mi’kmaq Nation and Maliseet Indians’ Houlton Band.) Portland News Pioneerobjects are human teeth and various funeral objects: tools, animal skins and fabric materials.
one Field Register A notice issued by the National Park Service on September 11, 2025 tracks the complex history of these objects. It explained that of 16 funeral objects, 15 were “probably excavated by Warren K. Moorehead in the late 19th century and donated to the Peabody Museum in Andover, Massachusetts.” They then headed to the Bangor Historical Society in the early 20th century and finally to Abbe in 1997.
Recorded SNAFU occurred when no loan to a professor at Orono University of Maine (died in 2016) was recorded. The objects didn’t return to ABBE until earlier this year.
The 16th object is a tear-shaped stone tool called “Plummet”, “Walter B. Smith (Walter B. Register. Last year, the event was sent back to ABBE due to part of a separate undocumented loan.
Meanwhile, the legend of single teeth in a separate Field Register Notice submitted on the same day. It is part of a collection of “animal materials” taken from a website in Gouldsboro, Maine in 2011. Last summer, Abbe got engaged to a team of researchers at Boston University to analyze the material that revealed human teeth.
According to these two Field Register Posts.
For its part, ABBE is committed to analyzing its collection and repatriation of any object that belongs to one of the local tribes. according to pioneerthe museum’s board is the majority Wabanaki, including Newell Lewey (Passamaquoddy). There is also a separate Wabanaki committee composed of members appointed by four tribal leaders.
