The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990 created a legal framework for many museums and federal agencies to inventory and return Native human remains and certain cultural items to affiliated tribes.

The Smithsonian followed a separate but related repatriation framework established through the National Museum of the American Indian Act.

Against this changing legal and ethical landscape, the question of Ishi’s body returned.

His ashes were known to be in a cemetery.

But rumors persisted that his brain had been removed.

Researchers at the University of California investigated.

Anthropologist Orin Starn followed archival clues.

Correspondence eventually provided the key.

The documents showed that Kroeber had sent the brain to the National Museum in Washington.

In January 1999, the Smithsonian confirmed that it still had the organ.