By Eric Plummer, Ha-Shilth-Sa Newspaper, Ha-Shilth-Sa New York, New York – Moments after the official documents were signed, Mowachaht/Muchalaht members broke into song, marking the return of a whale hunting shrine that has sat in a New York museum’s storage for 120 years. Decades in the making, the transfer of ownership was made official on March 25 at the American Museum of Natural History, which has kept the Yuquot Whalers Washing House since 1904. A Mowachaht/Muchalaht delegation of about two dozen travelled across the continent for the occasion. As the ownership was transferred back to the First Nation, boxes and cases containing the shrine’s contents awaited their long journey back to Yuquot on the southern edge of Nootka Island, where they were taken under suspect circumstances over a century ago….
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