Professor Emeritus Dr. William Lovis, in collaboration with Bolivian colleagues José M. Capriles (The Pennsylvania State University) and David Trigo Rodríguez (Universidad Mayor de San Simón, formerly of the Museo Nacional de Arqueología, or MUNARQ), coauthored the article “La Repatriación de una momia andina del Museo de la Universidad Estatal de Michigan al Estado Plurinacional de Bolivia” (The Repatriation of an Andean Mummy from Michigan State University Museum to the Plurinational State of Bolivia) in the Bolivian journal Textos Antropológicos. 

The article, in Spanish and accessible to the South American archaeological community, details the long and remarkable several year journey that led to the 2019 repatriation of the mummified human remains of a young Andean girl from Michigan State University to the Plurinational State of Bolivia.  She had arrived at MSU in 1890. This may have been the first such voluntary repatriation from a US institution of higher education under the terms of bilateral accords between the United States and Bolivia.  The coauthors, who were three of the principals in the repatriation, detail the various steps, stages, successes, and pitfalls of the extended repatriation process, and provide detailed information on the young lady’s material goods, as well as other pertinent data. 

Given the complexity of the negotiation procedures between a US institution and a nation state, numerous individuals from Michigan State University and various agencies of US and Bolivian government are mentioned in the text, and acknowledgements, for their roles in bringing the repatriation to fruition. The ceremony culminating the event took place at the Bolivian Embassy in Washington DC, on Bolivian Independence Day, in 2019; 129 years after the young lady’s arrival at MSU.

For more information, see this link for the article (Spanish).