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The Repatriation Database Data from Nov. 29, 2023 Michigan

Monroe County, Michigan

Institutions reported making 86% of the more than 100 Native American remains taken from Monroe County, Michigan available for return to tribes under NAGPRA.

remains of 103 Native Americans made available for return to tribes
remains of at least 17 Native Americans not made available for return

There are seven institutions that reported Native American remains taken from Monroe County, Michigan.

InstitutionRemains Not Made Available for ReturnRemains Made Available for Return% of Remains Made Available for Return
University of Toledo144677%
University of Michigan Museum of Anthropology24796%
Wayne State University1150%
Cranbrook Institute of Science05100%
Michigan State Historic Preservation Office01100%
Michigan State Police01100%
Michigan State University02100%
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 Monroe County, Michigan available for return to 52 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
Bay Mills Indian Community, Michigan103
Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, Michigan103
Keweenaw Bay Indian Community, Michigan103
Lac Vieux Desert Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians of Michigan103
Little River Band of Ottawa Indians, Michigan103
Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians, Michigan103
Nottawaseppi Huron Band of the Potawatomi, Michigan (formerly the Huron Potawatomi, Inc.)103
Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians, Michigan and Indiana103
Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe of Michigan103
Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, Michigan103
Hannahville Indian Community, Michigan98
Match-e-be-nash-she-wish Band of Pottawatomi Indians of Michigan98
Bad River Band of the Lake Superior Tribe of Chippewa Indians of the Bad River Reservation, Wisconsin51
Bois Forte Band (Nett Lake) of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, Minnesota51
Chippewa Cree Indians of the Rocky Boy's Reservation, Montana51
Citizen Potawatomi Nation, Oklahoma51
Delaware Nation, Oklahoma51
Delaware Tribe of Indians51
Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma51
Fond du Lac Band of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, Minnesota51
Forest County Potawatomi Community, Wisconsin51
Grand Portage Band of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, Minnesota51
Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians of Wisconsin51
Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians of the Lac du Flambeau Reservation of Wisconsin51
Leech Lake Band of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, Minnesota51
Mille Lacs Band of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, Minnesota51
Ottawa Tribe of Oklahoma51
Prairie Band of Potawatomi Nation51
Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians of Wisconsin51
Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians, Minnesota51
Seneca Nation of Indians51
Seneca-Cayuga Nation51
Shawnee Tribe51
Sokaogon Chippewa Community, Wisconsin51
St. Croix Chippewa Indians of Wisconsin51
Tonawanda Band of Seneca51
Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians of North Dakota51
White Earth Band of Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, Minnesota51
Wyandotte Nation51
Absentee-Shawnee Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma50
Miami Tribe of Oklahoma50
Sac and Fox Nation of Missouri in Kansas and Nebraska50
Sac and Fox Nation, Oklahoma50
Sac and Fox Tribe of the Mississippi in Iowa50
Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas48
Kickapoo Tribe of Indians of the Kickapoo Reservation in Kansas48
Kickapoo Tribe of Oklahoma48
Peoria Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma48
Quechan Tribe of the Fort Yuma Indian Reservation, California and Arizona47
Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians of Montana4
Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, Minnesota3
Stockbridge Munsee Community, Wisconsin3
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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