Jul 06, 2021

Harvard returning Standing Bear's tomahawk to Nebraska tribe

Posted Jul 06, 2021 5:03 PM
Photo: Nebraska Commission of Indian Affairs
Photo: Nebraska Commission of Indian Affairs

BOSTON (AP) — A tomahawk once owned by Chief Standing Bear, a pioneering Native American civil rights leader, is returning to his Nebraska tribe after decades in a museum at Harvard.

The university's Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology says it's been working with members of the Ponca Tribe in Nebraska and Oklahoma to repatriate the artifact.

The tribe's chairman says its anticipated return is a powerful symbol of homecoming for the tribe.

Standing Bear gave the tomahawk to one of his lawyers after winning the 1879 court case that made him one of the first Native Americans granted civil rights.