Rochester Museum Returns Oneida Nation Remains

Flag of the Iroquois Confederacy, purple with white Hiawatha Belt design.
The flag of the Iroquois Confederacy, also known as the Haudenosaunee, features a purple background with the white Hiawatha Belt design.

The Rochester Museum and Science Center Wednesday returned ancestral remains of 19 Native Americans to the Oneida Nation.

The remains of Oneida ancestors include those of five men, three women, and two adolescent girls who lived sometime between 200 and 3,000 years ago.

The remains returned Wednesday were dug up from at least six burial sites throughout the state between 1928 and 1979. Hillary Olson, the president of the Rochester Museum and Science Center, apologized for the museum’s acquisition of the remains.

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