Wabanaki artifacts, including from Blue Hill, to be repatriated

Human remain from one local site, believed to have been settled thousands of years ago, to also be returned

March 18, 2026

By Emily Baer

In a notice posted to the Federal Register on March 2, the National Park Service announced that the University of Maine will be repatriating hundreds of Wabanaki artifacts and remains, including several that were removed from two sites in the Blue Hill area, to tribal communities starting next month.

According to the notice, the university’s inventory includes the “physical remains of a minimum of 26 individuals of Native American ancestry,” all of which will be returned to tribes as part of this process. An additional 532 objects that are believed to have “been placed intentionally with or near individual human remains at the time of death or later as part of the death rite or ceremony” will also be returned.

Human remains that were removed during a 1968 excavation of a location known as the “Grindle site” in Blue Hill are among those returning to tribal communities. The notice said that the remains from that site have “been identified as three human left metatarsal bones. The age and sex of the individuals were not determined. 

The exact age of human remains is hard to determine but charcoal found near the remains was determined through radiocarbon dating to be 800 to 1,000 years old. Given their proximity to a shell midden, the park service found that it is “reasonable to assume” that the remains are Native American.

Human remains representing at least one individual from a location called the “Nevin site” in Blue Hill will also be repatriated. In that instance, the “individual is represented by one unidentified human bone fragment.” Twenty five additional objects like stone tools, animal bones, and abraders–tools used for smoothing, sharpening or shaping other materials–were removed from that site. All were later determined by the university to be funerary objects. 

The notice said that the artifacts removed from the Nevin site were dated by the Smithsonian Institute and are thought to be between 2,700-4,300 years old.

“I think it’s really important that these [remains and artifacts] are returned,” said Blue Hill resident Butler Smythe. “People, generally, are unaware of this history here and that this land has been inhabited for thousands of years.”