The largest art and history museum in northern New England has officially begun building a new center for a major collection of Native American items.

Vermont’s Shelburne Museum has been planning the Perry Center for Native American Art , a $14 million project, for seven years.

When it’s completed, it’ll house more than 500 items from nearly 400 Indigenous nations.

The sensitive nature of Native American items — which European-descended Americans have a history of looting, then displaying — creates extra legal and ethical responsibilities for institutions like the Shelburne Museum.

While the museum has reached out to hundreds of Indigenous nations and undergone a long consultation process, it faces criticism from the W8banaki Nation for whom the museum has chosen to represent Abenaki

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