A Tri-Counties museum has returned the remains of two people which have been in its archaeological collection for nearly a century back to their native Peru.
In 1877, a French archaeologist recovered the remains of some indigenous Peruvians. He also spent some time in what’s now the Tri-Counties, as he studied the Native Americans in the Channel Islands.
In 1878, he donated the remains of the two people to what was then called Santa Barbara State College. Them in 1925, the college gave them to the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History.
As part of a recent review of its collection, the museum decided that the remains should be returned to Peru. They were turned over Peru’s consulate in Los Angeles Tuesday.
