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Repatriations | Zuni Pueblo

In 1990 the University of Pennsylvania Museum repatriated one war god (Ahuyu:da) to the community of Zuni Pueblo, New Mexico. Museum Curator Stuart Culin, had collected the war god on the Wanamaker Expedition of 1902 from collector R.C. H. Brock who had removed it from a shrine on Zuni’s Thunder Mountain.

The staff of the Museum unanimously agreed that the war god should be returned to the Zuni people. On November 12, 1990, after it was deaccessioned by the Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania, the war god was transferred in a formal ceremony at the Museum to Zuni representatives Barton Martza, Head Councilman, Perry Tsadiasi, Bow Priest, and T.J. Ferguson of the Institute of the North American West. At a Museum seminar that afternoon, the Zuni representatives talked about their repatriation efforts and the importance of the Ahayu:da in maintaining balance and harmony in their community and the world.