Boarding School and Land Allotment Eras 1879-1933

1896

Captured Indians are used as “living specimens” for study

Robert Edwin Peary. Image: Library of Congress
Robert Edwin Peary. Image: Library of Congress

Arctic explorer Robert E. Peary brings “living specimens” of Alaska and Greenland Indigenous peoples to New York City to the American Museum of Natural History, for scientific study and measurements by anthropologist Ales Hrdlicka. Four of the six perish from tuberculosis and die while on the trip. Hrdlicka directs that all four be “macerated, boiled, and reduced to skeletons at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University” and then installs the skeletons in museum collections. (https://academic.udayton.edu/race/02rights/native16.htm).

Traumatic Event