
We congratulate the 2021 LoisRoth Award recipient Bill Couch! As Public Affairs Officer at the U.S. Embassy in Helsinki, Finland, he coordinated the repatriation from the Finnish National Museum of the remains of 20 Indigenous People and their funerary objects for reburial in their ancestral home at Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado. Billโs commitment to reaching consensus in the face of divergent interests on both sides of the Atlantic echoes Lois Rothโs determination, cultural sensitivity and human empathy. Importantly, Billโs success has inspired the State Department to request US missions worldwide to seek out and assist with the repatriation of indigenous remains and religious artifactsโan important legacy in our times.