Skeleton burial denied
The Sami population on the Kola Peninsula wanted the skeletons of their ancestors to be returned from the exhibitions at the Murmansk Regional Museum to their original grave, but the claim was denied by the Museum.
This week 94 Skolt Sami skeletons were brought back from the laboratories at the University of Oslo to their original graves in northern Norway. Both the Vise Principal of the University, a representative from the Government and church leaders were present at the ceremony and excused for the horrible actions performed in the name of research 96 years earlier.
In 2009 Sami NGOs from the Russian Kola Penninsula presented a similar claim to bury their ancestors, who were part of the exhibition at the Murmansk Regional Museum, according to Komsomolskaya Pravda. However, this claim was denied by the Museum. The Museum’s argument was that the skeletons were subjects of archeological excavations and said that it was impossible for them to send back what they considered to be a museum piece.
