The world-famous Mütter Museum, which is part of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia and home to priceless medical artifacts, specimens, and anomalies, is scaling back exhibits to comply with a 1990 federal law -- the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) -- that calls for the return of indigenous human remains to descendants and tribal nations.
Exhibits at the Mütter Museum are currently being disassembled so that Native American human remains and associated funerary objects can be returned to lineal descendants.
The remains of more than 110,000 Native American, Native Hawaiian, and Alaskan Natives' ancestors are still held by museums, universities, and federal agencies across the U.S., according to a ProPublica report.
The Mütter Museum has removed nearly all its violative and offending YouTube videos and many images from its website and Instagram account. Yet, the remains of 49 of 57 Native Americans at the museum have not been made available for return to tribes.
Many physicians in Philadelphia and elsewhere would like the artifacts and specimens to remain at the Mütter Museum and exhibited on social media platforms. They argue that medical relics, regardless of their origin, have undeniable educational value. The Philly physicians remind me of some of my colleagues in the South who are equally upset and opposed to the removal of Confederate statues. They, too, argue that symbols of a bygone era have educational value, even if the motives and actions of their ancestors were misguided, which many will never admit.
Perhaps it is because museums are unique and ostensibly extensions of institutions of higher learning that the Mütter Museum should remain intact rather than dismantled like confederate statues. One reader of The Philadelphia Inquirer, which broke the story about the Mütter Museum, remarked, "Shifting the mission of the museum ... sets this 160-year-old institution on a path to bland, sanitized mediocrity. The displays can be hard to look at, but they operate on multiple levels in the way they weave biology, anatomy, medical history, and social history together. If ever there was a place that isn't broken and doesn't need fixing, it is the Mütter. It should be viewed as a place we take care of and pass on to the next generation."
So, that means we should put all the Confederate statues, flags, and other paraphernalia in a museum and preserve them -- that would be OK? How about we throw in other symbols of racial and ethnic hatred -- maybe a swastika or the hood and robes of Ku Klux Klan members? Or, maybe an olive branch should be used instead, modeled after the U.S. Department of Defense plan to stop honoring Confederate soldiers by renaming military installations to be more welcoming to current and prospective Black service members?
A peace offering worked for William W. Mayo, MD, founder of the Mayo Clinic. In 1862, under orders from President Abraham Lincoln, 38 Native American men of the Santee Dakota people were hanged in the largest mass execution in U.S. history. Mayo led a team of doctors who dug up the sacred graves of the executed men and hauled them away for use as medical cadavers.
Mayo was given the body of "Cut Nose" (Marpiya te najin, or He Who Stands in the Clouds), the Dakota leader, which he brought to his office, dissected, melted away the flesh, and made a skeleton that he could study and allow his children to play with. Then, 156 years later, the Mayo Clinic apologized to descendants of "Cut Nose" and established an endowed scholarship in his honor. The family responded to the gesture warmly and indicated it would provide some healing after generations of grief.
There is no doubt the Mütter Museum provides people with an unparalleled understanding and insight into the human condition. "What museums do you know where people come away asking more questions than they had going in?" commented George Davis, DO, a maternal-fetal medicine specialist at the College of Physicians of Philadelphia.
Still, it begs the question how do we determine best practices in the ethical and respectful exhibition of sacred -- as well as secular -- human remains?
At the very least, consultation with Indian tribes, Alaska Native Corporations, and Native Hawaiian organizations is a critical component for addressing identification, treatment, and disposition of Native American items in accord with the requirements of NAGPRA. Museum administrators should engage these stakeholders in any future planned exhibits and involve their representatives in the development and consent process.
Medical museums should be keenly aware of the diversity within communities and constituencies they serve. There may be alternatives to exhibiting human remains, cultural items, and funerary and sacred objects -- for example, written accounts, oral histories, images, and works of art, music, and folklore.
When a medical exhibit addresses a controversial subject, it should acknowledge the existence of competing points of view. The public should be able to see that medical history is a changing process of interpretation and reinterpretation formed through gathering and reviewing evidence, drawing conclusions, and presenting the conclusions in text or exhibit format.
As to the question of who will make reparations -- and how will they be made -- for the hermetically sealed remnants languishing at the Mütter Museum, a good first step is to raise the issue of what justice in healthcare looks like and the forms they might take.
Arthur Lazarus, MD, MBA, is a former fellow of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia and an adjunct professor of psychiatry at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University in Philadelphia. His forthcoming book is titled Every Story Counts: Exploring Contemporary Practice Through Narrative Medicine.