Date of Award

Spring 6-12-2026

Document Type

Masters Thesis

Degree Name

M.A. in Anthropology

Organizational Unit

College of Arts Humanities and Social Sciences, Anthropology

First Advisor

Christina Kreps

Second Advisor

Kelly Fayard

Third Advisor

Angela K. Parker

Copyright Statement / License for Reuse

All Rights Reserved
All Rights Reserved.

Keywords

Decolonial Indigenization, Museum praxis, Native American, Rematriation, Seed keeping, Archives

Abstract

While the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) paved the way for the repatriation of ancestors and certain cultural objects to Indigenous communities, museums still struggle to address other forms of cultural returns. Heritage seeds, those which hold cultural significance to Indigenous peoples, held within museum collections perpetuates the colonization of Indigenous lifeways. This research examines rematriation as an Indigenous form of cultural return better suited to address these needs than limited repatriation models. I analyze how museums are working to create rematriation processes for their collections which reflect diverse Indigenous epistemologies and ontologies through a three-tiered approach: 1) a literature review on rematriation, 2) a comparative study of museum and Indigenous-approaches to rematriation, and 3) a case study of the heritage seed collection at the Science Museum of Minnesota (SMM). Drawing from archival research and semi-structured interviews conducted with seed keepers and museum professionals, this research aims to provide insight into how institutions may reunite Indigenous communities with seeds through a culturally informed and reflexive process.

Copyright Date

6-2026

Publication Statement

Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.

Rights Holder

Madeline G. Anderson

Provenance

Received from ProQuest

File Format

application/pdf

Language

English (eng)

Extent

231 pgs

File Size

998 KB

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