CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) — A Native American lawyer in Oklahoma wants Harvard University to return a tomahawk once owned by his pioneering ancestor, Chief Standing Bear.
Brett Chapman told GBH last week that he's reached out to the university's Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology to return the heirloom.
He says 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.
A university spokesperson says the museum is open to repatriation, but that other family members and tribal representatives should be part of the discussions.
