Winnebago ask you to help spot artifacts

WINNEBAGO -- One woman is on a mission to return artifacts to her community's home in Nebraska. 

"I obviously can't even begin to fathom what is all in museums all across the country, so we kind of have to hope they will reach out to us. I wish I could go to every museum in the country, but I can't! So we hope when people see [artifacts] in museums, they reach out to those Native American tribes to tell them," Sunshine Thomas Bear said Monday as she told NCN how she is looking to repatriate items to the community. 

The tribe has seen an increase of three times its usual amount of item repatriations this year -- 2021. Bear attributes this to the pandemic's easing, and the fact that "Young people see now that this is wrong," she said. She hopes museum curators in the younger generation continue to reach out about items they have in their museums or even at universities. 

Part of repatriation is the returning of human remains. Bear explained that since 1990, Native Americans have been finally reburying bodies that were used for displays or for science, before. 

"I know we weren't always thought of as humans, but we are [....] I wouldn't wish that upon you or anyone, to be in a museum on display," Bear said. 

April marked their last reburying ceremony, though locations are not disclosed to the public as theft and threats have occurred in the past.