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Natural-history museums across Pennsylvania are preparing for an unusual homecoming -- the return of thousands of fragments of human remains and other objects sacred to American Indians.

"We have human remains. We don't have a lot of them," said James B. Richardson III, curator of anthropology for the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Oakland. "We're negotiating with the tribes and encouraging them to take this out."

The Carnegie Museum of Natural History, California University of Pennsylvania , Penn State University and the State Museum of Pennsylvania are among the institutions around the nation preparing to return parts of their collections. As of April 30, museums and federal agencies have documented remains of at least 27,312 people and 622,176 artifacts that are eligible to be returned, according to the National Park Service.

The service administers the federal Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990.

The idea of the law is to return to American Indians the remains of their ancestors and funerary items, as well as objects of religious, historical or cultural significance that had been excavated or taken from them.

"It's not right to dig up remains," said Russell Simms, executive director of the Council of Three Rivers American Indian Center Inc. "We appreciate accurate history, but not in that manner."

The American Indian Center is a nonprofit group that represents members of 76 different tribes.

Carnegie Museum of Natural History is negotiating with the Lakota tribe for the return of eight fragments of human remains from the Great Plains. The museum also is negotiating with the Hopi for 100 sacred objects -- items such as masks and dance wands found in Arizona.

The museum already has returned 1,500 grave items to the Iroquois, including pieces of pottery and arrowheads.

The human remains and sacred artifacts are among 4 million pieces stored at The Carnegie's Edward O'Neil Research Center in the East End. The stash contains a mishmash of objects such as mummies, samurai armor and fleas in costumes.

The holy objects -- those buried with Native Americans or used in rituals -- are stored in "sacred and sensitive" cabinets that cost $2,800 each. The cabinets feature a special paint that does not emit fumes, which could harm the objects, and special gaskets so that the cabinets are nearly air-tight. Locks to the cabinets are on separate keys with limited access.

"Other people are not allowed in the room unaccompanied," said Deborah Harding, collections manager. "We are very picky."

The State Museum in Harrisburg has no human remains or sacred objects at the Fort Pitt Museum, Downtown. But it does have some Wyandot Indian remains from Lawrence County.

"We have 1,143 individuals represented in our collections," said Jane Crawford, spokeswoman for the State Museum. "And that could be skeletal remains, a tooth and, in rare instances, an entire skeleton. We have them for study and research purposes."

She said the museum has about 100,000 objects that must be repatriated, including beads, pottery, glass and axes. The museum is negotiating with the Stockbridge-Musee Indians in Wisconsin and the Delaware Indians -- both part of the Lenape tribe, for the return of sacred objects.

Some museums obtained their collections from grave robbers, though Richardson doubts items at Carnegie Museum of Natural History came from such sources. Rather, he said, they were excavated by archaeologists with a different sensibility than their modern counterparts.

Because Native Americans lacked a written language before the arrival of Columbus, the only way scientists could learn about the Indians was to talk to their descendants or to dig up their sites and reconstruct their culture, Richardson said. As a result, many scientists dug up grave sites.

"Today it's illegal to do this," he said. "Back then, it wasn't, but it certainly was unethical."

Now the task of returning the bones and artifacts is serious business.

A transfer with the Odawa, formerly called the Ottawa, was held last winter. A stone pipe bowl was wrapped in red cloth. The ceremony took place in a freight elevator so that the ritualistic blowing of smoke would not set off the sprinklers.

"Different people have different opinions as to how the process is going," said Paula Molloy, a program officer with the National Park Service. "Depending on the tribe, agency or museum, you'll get a different opinion."

Simms said Carnegie Museum of Natural History has come a long way in its thinking about Native American exhibits since the opening of the Alcoa Foundation Hall of American Indians.

"For years and years and years," he said, "we argued with those folks about their warehousing of bones, Native American artifacts. And to some degree, they would listen and change a display. But then, when the smoke cleared, they were back to same old-same old."

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