Taken more than 100 years ago, the Whalers Washing House is finally coming home.

Twenty-five members of the Mowachaht/Muchalaht First Nation (MMFN) are heading to New York on March 25 to repatriate what may be the largest treasure of a First Nation ever taken to the United States. The American Museum of Natural History is finally relinquishing the unique Whalers Washing House, consisting of four wooden whales, 88 carved figures, and 16 ancestral remains.

The shrine, originally located on an island on Jewett Lake at Yuquot (colonial, Friendly Cove), was where the families of whalers went to conduct purification rituals in preparation for the whale hunt.

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