Robert S. Peabody Institute of Archaeology, Phillips Academy
The Robert S. Peabody Institute of Archaeology has the 88th largest collection of unrepatriated Native American remains in the U.S. The institution reported still having the remains of at least 100 Native Americans that it has not made available for return to tribes.
The institution has made available for return 95% of the more than 2,200 Native American remains that it reported to the federal government.
Where Native American remains reported by the Robert S. Peabody Institute of Archaeology were taken from
Timeline of Native American remains made available for return to tribes by the Robert S. Peabody Institute of Archaeology
How the Robert S. Peabody Institute of Archaeology compares to other institutions
The Robert S. Peabody Institute of Archaeology made Native American remains available for return to 78 tribes.
| Tribe | Remains Made Available for Return To |
|---|---|
| Pueblo of Jemez, New Mexico | 1,929 |
| Muscogee (Creek) Nation | 116 |
| Alabama-Quassarte Tribal Town, Oklahoma | 106 |
| Thlopthlocco Tribal Town | 106 |
| Kialegee Tribal Town | 105 |
| Poarch Band of Creek Indians | 105 |
| Penobscot Nation | 46 |
| Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe | 34 |
| Passamaquoddy Tribe of Maine | 34 |
| Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) | 33 |
| Assonet Band of the Wampanoag Nation | 24 |
| Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians | 18 |
| Mi'kmaq Nation | 18 |
| Seminole Tribe of Florida | 14 |
| The Seminole Nation of Oklahoma | 14 |
| Hopi Tribe of Arizona | 13 |
| Miccosukee Tribe of Indians | 13 |
| Wampanoag Repatriation Confederation | 13 |
| Zuni Tribe of the Zuni Reservation, New Mexico | 13 |
| Ak-Chin Indian Community | 8 |
| Gila River Indian Community of the Gila River Indian Reservation, Arizona | 8 |
| Quapaw Nation | 8 |
| Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community of the Salt River Reservation, Arizona | 8 |
| Tohono O'odham Nation of Arizona | 8 |
| Tunica-Biloxi Indian Tribe | 8 |
| Mashantucket Pequot Indian Tribe | 6 |
| Delaware Nation, Oklahoma | 5 |
| Delaware Tribe of Indians | 5 |
| Ohkay Owingeh, New Mexico (formerly the Pueblo of San Juan) | 5 |
| Pueblo of Acoma, New Mexico | 5 |
| Pueblo of Cochiti, New Mexico | 5 |
| Pueblo of Isleta, New Mexico | 5 |
| Pueblo of Laguna, New Mexico | 5 |
| Pueblo of Nambe, New Mexico | 5 |
| Pueblo of Picuris, New Mexico | 5 |
| Pueblo of Pojoaque, New Mexico | 5 |
| Pueblo of San Felipe, New Mexico | 5 |
| Pueblo of San Ildefonso, New Mexico | 5 |
| Pueblo of Sandia, New Mexico | 5 |
| Pueblo of Santa Ana, New Mexico | 5 |
| Pueblo of Santa Clara, New Mexico | 5 |
| Pueblo of Taos, New Mexico | 5 |
| Pueblo of Tesuque, New Mexico | 5 |
| Pueblo of Zia, New Mexico | 5 |
| Santo Domingo Pueblo | 5 |
| Stockbridge Munsee Community, Wisconsin | 5 |
| Ysleta del Sur Pueblo | 5 |
| Nipmuc Nation | 4 |
| Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma | 3 |
| Narragansett Indian Tribe | 2 |
| Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas | 1 |
| Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes of the Fort Peck Indian Reservation, Montana | 1 |
| Bay Mills Indian Community, Michigan | 1 |
| Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe of the Cheyenne River Reservation, South Dakota | 1 |
| Chickasaw Nation | 1 |
| Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana | 1 |
| Crow Creek Sioux Tribe of the Crow Creek Reservation, South Dakota | 1 |
| Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe of South Dakota | 1 |
| Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, Michigan | 1 |
| Jena Band of Choctaw Indians | 1 |
| Keweenaw Bay Indian Community, Michigan | 1 |
| Lac Vieux Desert Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians of Michigan | 1 |
| Lower Brule Sioux Tribe of the Lower Brule Reservation, South Dakota | 1 |
| Lower Sioux Indian Community in the State of Minnesota | 1 |
| Mohegan Tribe of Indians of Connecticut | 1 |
| Oglala Sioux Tribe | 1 |
| Prairie Island Indian Community in the State of Minnesota | 1 |
| Rosebud Sioux Tribe of the Rosebud Indian Reservation, South Dakota | 1 |
| Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe of Michigan | 1 |
| Santee Sioux Nation, Nebraska | 1 |
| Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, Michigan | 1 |
| Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community of Minnesota | 1 |
| Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate of the Lake Traverse Reservation, South Dakota | 1 |
| Spirit Lake Tribe, North Dakota | 1 |
| Standing Rock Sioux Tribe of North and South Dakota | 1 |
| Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Reservation, North Dakota | 1 |
| Upper Sioux Community, Minnesota | 1 |
| Yankton Sioux Tribe of South Dakota | 1 |
The Robert S. Peabody Institute of Archaeology reported making 98% of more than 32,700 associated funerary objects available for return to tribes.
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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