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The Repatriation Database Data from Jan. 6, 2025 Illinois

LaSalle County, Illinois

Institutions reported making 17% of the more than 300 Native American remains taken from LaSalle County, Illinois available for return to tribes under NAGPRA.

remains of 59 Native Americans made available for return to tribes
remains of at least 284 Native Americans not made available for return

There are six institutions that reported Native American remains taken from LaSalle County, Illinois.

InstitutionRemains Not Made Available for ReturnRemains Made Available for Return% of Remains Made Available for Return
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign12600%
Illinois State Museum1074329%
Indiana University511219%
American Museum of Natural History02100%
Beloit College, Logan Museum of Anthropology01100%
U.S. Department of the Interior01100%
Under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, when an institution establishes a connection between tribes and remains, it must publish a list of the tribes eligible to make a repatriation claim. The remains are then made available for return to the tribe(s). Once a tribal claim is made, physical transfer may occur. Many remains have been physically returned to tribes, but data on this is spotty because the law does not require institutions to report when these transfers occur.

Institutions made Native American remains taken from LaSalle County, Illinois available for return to 63 tribes.

Institutions often make remains available for return to multiple tribes, so the amount of remains listed below may be counted for more than one tribe.
TribeRemains Made Available for Return to Tribe
Peoria Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma56
Citizen Potawatomi Nation, Oklahoma3
Forest County Potawatomi Community, Wisconsin3
Hannahville Indian Community, Michigan3
Nottawaseppi Huron Band of the Potawatomi, Michigan (formerly the Huron Potawatomi, Inc.)3
Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians, Michigan and Indiana3
Prairie Band of Potawatomi Nation3
Ho-Chunk Nation of Wisconsin2
Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska2
Bad River Band of the Lake Superior Tribe of Chippewa Indians of the Bad River Reservation, Wisconsin1
Bay Mills Indian Community, Michigan1
Bois Forte Band (Nett Lake) of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, Minnesota1
Cayuga Nation1
Chippewa Cree Indians of the Rocky Boy's Reservation, Montana1
Crow Creek Sioux Tribe of the Crow Creek Reservation, South Dakota1
Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe of South Dakota1
Fond du Lac Band of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, Minnesota1
Grand Portage Band of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, Minnesota1
Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, Michigan1
Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska1
Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma1
Keweenaw Bay Indian Community, Michigan1
Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas1
Kickapoo Tribe of Indians of the Kickapoo Reservation in Kansas1
Kickapoo Tribe of Oklahoma1
Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians of Wisconsin1
Lac Vieux Desert Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians of Michigan1
Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians of the Lac du Flambeau Reservation of Wisconsin1
Leech Lake Band of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, Minnesota1
Little River Band of Ottawa Indians, Michigan1
Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians of Montana1
Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians, Michigan1
Lower Sioux Indian Community in the State of Minnesota1
Match-e-be-nash-she-wish Band of Pottawatomi Indians of Michigan1
Miami Tribe of Oklahoma1
Mille Lacs Band of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, Minnesota1
Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, Minnesota1
Oneida Indian Nation in New York1
Oneida Nation of Wisconsin1
Onondaga Nation1
Otoe-Missouria Tribe of Indians, Oklahoma1
Ottawa Tribe of Oklahoma1
Prairie Island Indian Community in the State of Minnesota1
Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians of Wisconsin1
Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians, Minnesota1
Sac and Fox Nation of Missouri in Kansas and Nebraska1
Sac and Fox Nation, Oklahoma1
Sac and Fox Tribe of the Mississippi in Iowa1
Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe of Michigan1
Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe1
Santee Sioux Nation, Nebraska1
Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, Michigan1
Seneca Nation of Indians1
Seneca-Cayuga Nation1
Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community of Minnesota1
Sokaogon Chippewa Community, Wisconsin1
St. Croix Chippewa Indians of Wisconsin1
Tonawanda Band of Seneca1
Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians of North Dakota1
Tuscarora Nation1
Upper Sioux Community, Minnesota1
White Earth Band of Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, Minnesota1
Yankton Sioux Tribe of South Dakota1
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About the Data

This tool presents a dataset maintained by the National Park Service containing all the Native American human remains and associated funerary objects that institutions have reported to the federal government under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. The dataset includes information about the state and county where remains and objects were taken from, which institutions hold them and whether they have been made available for return to tribes.

The data is self-reported by institutions. The amount of unrepatriated Native American remains reported by institutions is a minimum estimate of individuals and institutions frequently adjust these numbers when they reinventory groups of remains. Some institutions that are subject to NAGPRA have also entirely failed to report the remains in their possession. As a result, the numbers provided are best taken as estimates. The actual number and geographic scope of what’s held by publicly funded institutions is larger than what is presently documented.

ProPublica supplemented this dataset with information about cultural affiliation and disposition to specific tribes by systematically parsing the text of Notices of Inventory Completion published in the Federal Register. An additional dataset from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Tribal Directory Assessment Tool, was used for the section on remains not made available for return from counties that each tribe has indicated interest in to the federal government.

Institution location and tribal headquarters location information was provided by National NAGPRA. The location of some groups that are not federally recognized was provided through research by ProPublica.

Institutions that are part of a larger entity are grouped. (For example, the Mesa Verde National Park is part of the U.S. Department of the Interior.)

Institutions that have not submitted information to the federal government are not listed. The Smithsonian Institution is not listed because its repatriation process falls under the National Museum of the American Indian Act and it is not required to publicly report its holdings with the same detail as institutions subject to NAGPRA.

If you work for an institution and would like to provide comment on your institution’s repatriation efforts, please email [email protected]. If you think the data is incorrect or have a data request, please get in touch. We are aware of some issues with the accuracy of location information and tribes mistakenly being identified for disposition of Native American remains in published notices.

If you want to share something else with ProPublica, we’d like to hear from you.

If you have questions about implementing or complying with the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, get in touch with National NAGPRA or the NAGPRA Community of Practice.

We use the word “tribes” to refer to all groups that institutions made Native American remains available to under NAGPRA. This includes tribes, nations, bands, pueblos, communities, Native Alaskan villages, Native Hawaiian organizations and non-federally recognized groups.

Data sources from Department of the Interior, National Park Service, National NAGPRA Program, the Federal Register, Department of Housing and Development, Tribal Directory Assessment Tool