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Published online 28 February 2003 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news030224-8
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Museum preservatives taint tribes' relics
Repatriated tribal artefacts could pose poisoning risk
Poisonous preservatives on museum artefacts returned to a Native American tribe may pose a risk to curators and tribe members, scientists say.
The ceremonial headdresses, dance outfits and baskets were taken from the North Californian Hupa tribe during the early 1900s, and put on display in the Peabody Museum at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
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