The FBI has determined that a scalp it seized from a Maine auction house likely belongs to the Mescalero Apache Tribe.
The FBI obtained a search warrant in May 2022 for Poulin’s Antiques & Auctions Inc. on Route 201 in Fairfield after the agency received a tip from outside of Maine that a Native American item had been listed for sale on the business’ website.
According to a notice published by the National Park Service on Jan. 17, federal officials had determined through forensic testing that the item seized in 2022 was likely the remains of a member of the Apache tribe.
The item will be available for repatriation under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act by Feb. 18, 2025.
The item was advertised by the auctioneer as being in a “pipe bag 30 inches long including rawhide fringe.” It was decorated with red, blue and green geometric designs, according to federal documents.
A yellow tag attached to what was described as a “Mescalero Apache scalp” said that the person was killed at Johnson’s Run, Texas, but did not say when. The tag said that it was sent to Frank Owens by Lance Brewington in 1899.
The Mescalero Apache Tribe is a federally recognized tribe based in south-central New Mexico in the Lincoln National Forest. Its traditional hunting territory spanned from the Rio Grande Valley to the panhandle of Texas west to what is now Sante Fe and south into northern Mexico. Its reservation was created in 1873 by President Ulysses S. Grant.
FBI Special Agent Dale D. Wengler did not immediately respond to a request for a comment on Friday afternoon.
Former BDN writer Judy Harrison contributed to this report.
