Harvard University
2 subunits · Located in Massachusetts
Harvard Univ. has the 3rd largest collection of unrepatriated Native American remains in the U.S. The institution reported still having the remains of at least 5,600 Native Americans that it has not made available for return to tribes.
The institution has made available for return 44% of the more than 10,200 Native American remains that it reported to the federal government.
Where Native American remains reported by Harvard Univ. were taken from
Timeline of Native American remains made available for return to tribes by Harvard Univ.
How Harvard Univ. compares to other institutions
Harvard Univ. made Native American remains available for return to 218 tribes.
| Tribe | Remains Made Available for Return To |
|---|---|
| Pueblo of Jemez, New Mexico | 2,041 |
| Cherokee Nation | 662 |
| Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians | 626 |
| United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians in Oklahoma | 626 |
| Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) | 586 |
| Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe | 584 |
| Oneida Nation of Wisconsin | 262 |
| Oneida Indian Nation in New York | 258 |
| Assonet Band of the Wampanoag Nation | 255 |
| Onondaga Nation | 201 |
| Seneca Nation of Indians | 201 |
| Seneca-Cayuga Nation | 201 |
| Tonawanda Band of Seneca | 201 |
| Cayuga Nation | 200 |
| Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe | 200 |
| Tuscarora Nation | 200 |
| Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Mission Indians of the Santa Ynez Reservation, California | 186 |
| Hui Malama I Na Kupuna O Hawai'i Nei | 168 |
| Office of Hawaiian Affairs | 168 |
| O'ahu Island Burial Council | 161 |
| Kauai/Niihau Island Burial Council | 160 |
| Maui/Lanai Island Burial Council | 160 |
| Molokai Island Burial Council | 160 |
| Native Hawaiian Organizations | 160 |
| Penobscot Nation | 125 |
| Passamaquoddy Tribe of Maine | 112 |
| Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians | 111 |
| Mi'kmaq Nation | 111 |
| Keweenaw Bay Indian Community, Michigan | 100 |
| Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe of Michigan | 99 |
| Bad River Band of the Lake Superior Tribe of Chippewa Indians of the Bad River Reservation, Wisconsin | 98 |
| Bay Mills Indian Community, Michigan | 98 |
| Bois Forte Band (Nett Lake) of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, Minnesota | 98 |
| Chippewa Cree Indians of the Rocky Boy's Reservation, Montana | 98 |
| Fond du Lac Band of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, Minnesota | 98 |
| Grand Portage Band of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, Minnesota | 98 |
| Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, Michigan | 98 |
| Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians of Wisconsin | 98 |
| Lac Vieux Desert Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians of Michigan | 98 |
| Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians of the Lac du Flambeau Reservation of Wisconsin | 98 |
| Leech Lake Band of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, Minnesota | 98 |
| Little River Band of Ottawa Indians, Michigan | 98 |
| Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians, Michigan | 98 |
| Mille Lacs Band of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, Minnesota | 98 |
| Ottawa Tribe of Oklahoma | 98 |
| Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians of Wisconsin | 98 |
| Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians, Minnesota | 98 |
| Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, Michigan | 98 |
| Sokaogon Chippewa Community, Wisconsin | 98 |
| St. Croix Chippewa Indians of Wisconsin | 98 |
| Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians of North Dakota | 98 |
| White Earth Band of Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, Minnesota | 98 |
| La Jolla Band of Luiseno Indians, California | 77 |
| Pala Band of Mission Indians | 76 |
| Pauma Band of Luiseno Mission Indians of the Pauma and Yuima Reservation, California | 76 |
| Pechanga Band of Indians | 76 |
| Rincon Band of Luiseno Indians | 76 |
| Soboba Band of Luiseno Indians, California | 76 |
| Stockbridge Munsee Community, Wisconsin | 72 |
| Citizen Potawatomi Nation, Oklahoma | 65 |
| Forest County Potawatomi Community, Wisconsin | 65 |
| Hannahville Indian Community, Michigan | 65 |
| Match-e-be-nash-she-wish Band of Pottawatomi Indians of Michigan | 65 |
| Nottawaseppi Huron Band of the Potawatomi, Michigan (formerly the Huron Potawatomi, Inc.) | 65 |
| Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma | 65 |
| Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians, Michigan and Indiana | 65 |
| Prairie Band of Potawatomi Nation | 65 |
| Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Reservation, North Dakota | 55 |
| Delaware Nation, Oklahoma | 51 |
| Delaware Tribe of Indians | 51 |
| Wyandotte Nation | 48 |
| Quapaw Nation | 45 |
| Northern Arapaho Tribe of the Wind River Reservation, Wyoming | 32 |
| Abenaki Nation of Missisquoi | 30 |
| Abenaki Nation of New Hampshire | 30 |
| White Mountain Apache Tribe of the Fort Apache Reservation, Arizona | 28 |
| Chitina, Native Village of | 20 |
| Chickasaw Nation | 16 |
| Comanche Nation, Oklahoma | 16 |
| Zuni Tribe of the Zuni Reservation, New Mexico | 16 |
| Northern Cheyenne Tribe of the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation, Montana | 15 |
| Narragansett Indian Tribe | 13 |
| Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes, Oklahoma | 11 |
| Alabama-Quassarte Tribal Town, Oklahoma | 9 |
| Kialegee Tribal Town | 9 |
| Muscogee (Creek) Nation | 9 |
| Poarch Band of Creek Indians | 9 |
| Thlopthlocco Tribal Town | 9 |
| Tunica-Biloxi Indian Tribe | 9 |
| Nipmuc Nation | 8 |
| Navajo Nation, Arizona, New Mexico and Utah | 7 |
| Hawaii Island Burial Council | 6 |
| Lineal Descendant | 6 |
| Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma | 5 |
| Mohegan Tribe of Indians of Connecticut | 5 |
| Sac and Fox Nation of Missouri in Kansas and Nebraska | 5 |
| Sac and Fox Nation, Oklahoma | 5 |
| Sac and Fox Tribe of the Mississippi in Iowa | 5 |
| Tohono O'odham Nation of Arizona | 5 |
| Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes of the Fort Peck Indian Reservation, Montana | 4 |
| Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe of the Cheyenne River Reservation, South Dakota | 4 |
| Mashantucket Pequot Indian Tribe | 4 |
| Miccosukee Tribe of Indians | 4 |
| Pueblo of Santa Ana, New Mexico | 4 |
| Seminole Tribe of Florida | 4 |
| Spirit Lake Tribe, North Dakota | 4 |
| Standing Rock Sioux Tribe of North and South Dakota | 4 |
| The Seminole Nation of Oklahoma | 4 |
| Ak-Chin Indian Community | 3 |
| Caddo Nation of Oklahoma | 3 |
| Fort Independence Indian Community of Paiute Indians of the Fort Independence Reservation, California | 3 |
| Gila River Indian Community of the Gila River Indian Reservation, Arizona | 3 |
| Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin | 3 |
| Quechan Tribe of the Fort Yuma Indian Reservation, California and Arizona | 3 |
| Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community of the Salt River Reservation, Arizona | 3 |
| Apache Tribe of Oklahoma | 2 |
| Big Pine Paiute Tribe of the Owens Valley | 2 |
| Bishop Paiute Tribe | 2 |
| Duckwater Shoshone Tribe of the Duckwater Reservation, Nevada | 2 |
| Ely Shoshone Tribe of Nevada | 2 |
| Fort McDermitt Paiute and Shoshone Tribes of the Fort McDermitt Indian Reservation, Nevada and Oregon | 2 |
| Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation, Arizona | 2 |
| Fort Sill Apache Tribe of Oklahoma | 2 |
| Hoopa Valley Tribe, California | 2 |
| Jamestown S'Klallam Tribe | 2 |
| Jicarilla Apache Nation, New Mexico | 2 |
| Lone Pine Paiute-Shoshone Tribe | 2 |
| Lower Elwha Tribal Community | 2 |
| Mescalero Apache Tribe of the Mescalero Reservation, New Mexico | 2 |
| Oglala Sioux Tribe | 2 |
| Ounalashka Corporation | 2 |
| Paiute-Shoshone Tribe of the Fallon Reservation and Colony, Nevada | 2 |
| Ponca Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma | 2 |
| Port Gamble S'Klallam Tribe | 2 |
| Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe of the Pyramid Lake Reservation, Nevada | 2 |
| Qawalangin Tribe of Unalaska | 2 |
| Reno-Sparks Indian Colony, Nevada | 2 |
| San Carlos Apache Tribe of the San Carlos Reservation, Arizona | 2 |
| Shoshone-Paiute Tribes of the Duck Valley Reservation, Nevada | 2 |
| Summit Lake Paiute Tribe of Nevada | 2 |
| Te-Moak Tribe of Western Shoshone Indians of Nevada | 2 |
| Timbisha Shoshone Tribe | 2 |
| Tonto Apache Tribe of Arizona | 2 |
| Wampanoag Repatriation Confederation | 2 |
| Winnemucca Indian Colony of Nevada | 2 |
| Yankton Sioux Tribe of South Dakota | 2 |
| Yavapai-Apache Nation of the Camp Verde Indian Reservation, Arizona | 2 |
| Yomba Shoshone Tribe of the Yomba Reservation, Nevada | 2 |
| Absentee-Shawnee Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma | 1 |
| Big Valley Band of Pomo Indians of the Big Valley Rancheria, California | 1 |
| Bridgeport Indian Colony | 1 |
| Burns Paiute Tribe | 1 |
| Cahto Tribe of the Laytonville Rancheria | 1 |
| Campo Band of Diegueno Mission Indians of the Campo Indian Reservation, California | 1 |
| Capitan Grande Band of Diegueno Mission Indians of California | 1 |
| Cedarville Rancheria, California | 1 |
| Chaluka Corporation | 1 |
| Coeur D'Alene Tribe | 1 |
| Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation | 1 |
| Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation | 1 |
| Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Community of Oregon | 1 |
| Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation | 1 |
| Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon | 1 |
| Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians | 1 |
| Coyote Valley Band of Pomo Indians of California | 1 |
| Crow Creek Sioux Tribe of the Crow Creek Reservation, South Dakota | 1 |
| Ewiiaapaayp Band of Kumeyaay Indians, California | 1 |
| Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe of South Dakota | 1 |
| Fort Bidwell Indian Community of the Fort Bidwell Reservation of California | 1 |
| Guidiville Rancheria of California | 1 |
| Ho-Chunk Nation of Wisconsin | 1 |
| Hopland Band of Pomo Indians, California | 1 |
| Iipay Nation of Santa Ysabel, California | 1 |
| Inaja Band of Diegueno Mission Indians of the Inaja and Cosmit Reservation, California | 1 |
| Jamul Indian Village of California | 1 |
| Kaibab Band of Paiute Indians of the Kaibab Indian Reservation, Arizona | 1 |
| Kaw Nation, Oklahoma | 1 |
| Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas | 1 |
| Kickapoo Tribe of Indians of the Kickapoo Reservation in Kansas | 1 |
| Kickapoo Tribe of Oklahoma | 1 |
| Kiowa Indian Tribe of Oklahoma | 1 |
| Klamath Tribes | 1 |
| La Posta Band of Diegueno Mission Indians of the La Posta Indian Reservation, California | 1 |
| Las Vegas Tribe of Paiute Indians of the Las Vegas Indian Colony, Nevada | 1 |
| Lovelock Paiute Tribe of the Lovelock Indian Colony, Nevada | 1 |
| Lower Brule Sioux Tribe of the Lower Brule Reservation, South Dakota | 1 |
| Lower Sioux Indian Community in the State of Minnesota | 1 |
| Manchester Band of Pomo Indians of the Manchester Rancheria, California | 1 |
| Manzanita Band of Diegueno Mission Indians of the Manzanita Reservation, California | 1 |
| Mesa Grande Band of Diegueno Mission Indians of the Mesa Grande Reservation, California | 1 |
| Miami Tribe of Oklahoma | 1 |
| Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians | 1 |
| Moapa Band of Paiute Indians of the Moapa River Indian Reservation, Nevada | 1 |
| Nez Perce Tribe | 1 |
| Nikolski, Native Village of | 1 |
| Osage Nation | 1 |
| Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah | 1 |
| Peoria Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma | 1 |
| Pinoleville Pomo Nation, California | 1 |
| Potter Valley Tribe, California | 1 |
| Redwood Valley or Little River Band of the Redwood Valley Rancheria California | 1 |
| Rosebud Sioux Tribe of the Rosebud Indian Reservation, South Dakota | 1 |
| Round Valley Indian Tribes of the Round Valley Reservation, California | 1 |
| San Juan Southern Paiute Tribe of Arizona | 1 |
| San Pasqual Band of Diegueno Mission Indians of California | 1 |
| Santee Sioux Nation, Nebraska | 1 |
| Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community of Minnesota | 1 |
| Shawnee Tribe | 1 |
| Sherwood Valley Rancheria of Pomo Indians of California | 1 |
| Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate of the Lake Traverse Reservation, South Dakota | 1 |
| Susanville Indian Rancheria, California | 1 |
| Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation | 1 |
| Unalakleet, Native Village of | 1 |
| Upper Sioux Community, Minnesota | 1 |
| Utu Utu Gwaitu Paiute Tribe of the Benton Paiute Reservation, California | 1 |
| Walker River Paiute Tribe of the Walker River Reservation, Nevada | 1 |
| Wanapum Band | 1 |
| Yerington Paiute Tribe of the Yerington Colony and Campbell Ranch, Nevada | 1 |
Harvard Univ. reported Native American remains from two sub-institutions.
| Sub-institution | Remains Not Made Available for Return | Remains Made Available for Return | % of Remains Made Available for Return |
|---|---|---|---|
| Harvard University, Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology | 5,678 | 4,514 | 44% |
| Harvard University, Warren Anatomical Museum | 2 | 23 | 92% |
Harvard Univ. reported making 31% of more than 18,500 associated funerary objects available for return to tribes.
Harvard Univ. did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Know how an institution is handling repatriation? Have a personal story to share? We'd like to hear from you.
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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