Andover Newton Theological School Under Fire - Again - For Native American Art

NEWTON, MA — A local seminary is in the spotlight again for its handling of Native American Artifacts. Last week, federal officials sent a warning letter to the Newton Andover Theological School because it had not yet followed through on specific efforts to repatriate some artifacts it had once planned to sell.

"Since Andover Newton learned it is subject to the provisions of NAGPRA, leadership here has made every effort to comply with the law and we remain committed to doing so until all appropriate items are repatriated," said Andover's President Martin B. Copenhaver calling how long it's taken to do that an example of the challenges faced particularly by smaller institutions working hard to fully comply with such efforts in a letter to the school community.

In July of 2015 Andover Newton Theological School said after decades of owning a private collection with some 1,000 items for decades, they were ready part ways with about 100 pieces of it, as the school faced slowing enrollment. That raised red flags for the director of the Essex Peabody Museum, where much of the collection was housed, the Newton TAB, which broke the story, reported at the time.

By December that year, federal officials cited Newton for being out of compliance with a 1990 law governing the repatriation of Native American artifacts — a charge the school did not dispute as it said it was taking steps to return certain artifacts from its collection to tribes or individual Native Americans that may find them sacred, the Newton TAB reported at the time. The school quickly dropped plans to sell the art and instead said it would comply with the order, which included making an inventory of the items and sending them to tribes. School officials insisted it was always their intention to make the objects more visible to the public.

Though Federal Officials wouldn't comment on much relating to the case, which has been going on for about a year and a half, Melanie O'Brien Program Manager National NAGPRA did she'd been in touch with the school.

"I can say that I've been in touch with the school and we're trying to assist them in completing the process," she told Patch, adding, "There's not really a timeline for these kinds of cases they vary greatly."

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The story made it all the way to the New York Times this morning, which first reported the school's slow compliance.

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By Daderot (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons