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Cornell University returned ancestral remains and possessions that had been held in a university archive for six decades to the Oneida Indian Nation yesterday in a ceremony on the campus in Ithaca, N.Y.
The ancestral remains were unearthed in 1964 when property owners dug a ditch for a new water line on their farm. They were then given to the late Cornell anthropology professor Kenneth A. R. Kennedy. Kennedy conducted a forensic identification to determine the age and sex of the remains, which were later stored in the campus archives. After the professor’s death, the remains were rediscovered by younger colleagues during an archival inventory.
“Today we’re marking an event that is both long overdue and never should have become necessary,” Cornell's president, Martha E. Pollack, said at the Sage Chapel ceremony, where students, faculty and staff members, and Oneida Indian Nation members gathered. “We’re returning ancestral remains and possessions that we now recognize never should have been taken, never should have come to Cornell and never should have been kept here.”
