Over 200 Meskwaki Objects Come Home After More Than a Century

A collection of more than 200 Meskwaki cultural objects has finally returned home, closing a chapter that stretched back well over a hundred years. In late April 2026, the Missouri State Museum in Jefferson City repatriated the items, known as the Mary Alicia Owen Collection, to the Meskwaki Nation in Iowa, and tribal staff escorted the belongings back to their people.

The objects were gathered between roughly 1876 and 1886 by the folklorist Mary Alicia Owen, who took an interest in Meskwaki life and craft at a time when such cultural materials were often removed from Native communities. For more than a century the collection remained in Missouri, far from the people who made and used the items and for whom they hold deep meaning.

“In late April 2026, the Missouri State Museum in Jefferson City repatriated the items, known as the Mary Alicia Owen Collection, to the Meskwaki Nation in Iowa, and tribal staff escorted the belongings back to their people.”

The return was made possible by the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, the 1990 federal law that gives tribes legal standing to reclaim ancestral remains and cultural property held by museums and institutions. The Meskwaki first engaged the Missouri State Museum in 1993, beginning a careful, often slow process that culminated in a formal repatriation request in August 2025 and the publication of the required federal notice, which cleared the way for the objects to come home in 2026.

Johnathan Buffalo, the Meskwaki Historic Preservation director, reflected on the long history with characteristic grace. He noted that Owen would be remembered as one of many outsiders who glimpsed the beauty and worthiness of Meskwaki culture even if they did not fully understand it, and he thanked her and the museum for the gentleness with which the items had been treated for more than a hundred years.

Repatriations like this one are quietly reshaping the relationship between museums and Native nations across the United States. Each return is more than a transfer of objects; it is an act of respect that helps mend historical wrongs and lets communities reconnect with the work of their ancestors. For the Meskwaki, welcoming home these belongings means restoring a piece of their living heritage, and reaffirming that the right place for a people's treasures is among the people themselves.