University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Department of Anthropology — NAGPRA Database

The Repatriation Database Data from Nov. 29, 2023

Where Native American remains reported by the Univ. of Wisconsin, Milwaukee were taken from

Each county is a peak

Height is the minimum amount of remains taken from county, as reported by institution

Color is reported rate of remains made available for return to tribes

Institution reported no remains taken from these counties

Location of institution

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.

Timeline of Native American remains made available for return to tribes by the Univ. of Wisconsin, Milwaukee

Tribal and institutional capacity, funding, staffing, regulatory changes, audits, Review Committee decisions and litigation may influence timelines. Under NAGPRA, institutions determine whether Native American remains may be returned through cultural affiliation using evidence such as tribal traditional knowledge and biological and archaeological links, or through disposition based on geographic affiliation.

How the Univ. of Wisconsin, Milwaukee compares to other institutions

The amount of Native American remains still held by institutions ranges widely.

The Univ. of Wisconsin, Milwaukee made Native American remains available for return to 74 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.

Tribe	Remains Made Available for Return To
Ho-Chunk Nation of Wisconsin	83
Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska	83
Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma	83
Otoe-Missouria Tribe of Indians, Oklahoma	83
Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska	83
Crow Creek Sioux Tribe of the Crow Creek Reservation, South Dakota	61
Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe of South Dakota	61
Lower Sioux Indian Community in the State of Minnesota	61
Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin	61
Miami Tribe of Oklahoma	61
Prairie Band of Potawatomi Nation	61
Prairie Island Indian Community in the State of Minnesota	61
Santee Sioux Nation, Nebraska	61
Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community of Minnesota	61
Bad River Band of the Lake Superior Tribe of Chippewa Indians of the Bad River Reservation, Wisconsin	58
Bay Mills Indian Community, Michigan	58
Bois Forte Band (Nett Lake) of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, Minnesota	58
Chippewa Cree Indians of the Rocky Boy's Reservation, Montana	58
Citizen Potawatomi Nation, Oklahoma	58
Fond du Lac Band of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, Minnesota	58
Forest County Potawatomi Community, Wisconsin	58
Grand Portage Band of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, Minnesota	58
Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, Michigan	58
Hannahville Indian Community, Michigan	58
Keweenaw Bay Indian Community, Michigan	58
Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians of Wisconsin	58
Lac Vieux Desert Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians of Michigan	58
Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians of the Lac du Flambeau Reservation of Wisconsin	58
Leech Lake Band of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, Minnesota	58
Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians of Montana	58
Match-e-be-nash-she-wish Band of Pottawatomi Indians of Michigan	58
Mille Lacs Band of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, Minnesota	58
Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, Minnesota	58
Nottawaseppi Huron Band of the Potawatomi, Michigan (formerly the Huron Potawatomi, Inc.)	58
Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians, Michigan and Indiana	58
Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians of Wisconsin	58
Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians, Minnesota	58
Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe of Michigan	58
Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, Michigan	58
Sokaogon Chippewa Community, Wisconsin	58
St. Croix Chippewa Indians of Wisconsin	58
Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians of North Dakota	58
White Earth Band of Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, Minnesota	58
Yankton Sioux Tribe of South Dakota	58
Peoria Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma	40
Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes of the Fort Peck Indian Reservation, Montana	39
Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe of the Cheyenne River Reservation, South Dakota	39
Lower Brule Sioux Tribe of the Lower Brule Reservation, South Dakota	39
Oglala Sioux Tribe	39
Rosebud Sioux Tribe of the Rosebud Indian Reservation, South Dakota	39
Sac and Fox Nation of Missouri in Kansas and Nebraska	39
Sac and Fox Nation, Oklahoma	39
Sac and Fox Tribe of the Mississippi in Iowa	39
Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate of the Lake Traverse Reservation, South Dakota	39
Spirit Lake Tribe, North Dakota	39
Standing Rock Sioux Tribe of North and South Dakota	39
Upper Sioux Community, Minnesota	39
Little River Band of Ottawa Indians, Michigan	38
Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians, Michigan	38
Ottawa Tribe of Oklahoma	38
Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas	18
Kickapoo Tribe of Indians of the Kickapoo Reservation in Kansas	18
Kickapoo Tribe of Oklahoma	18
Osage Nation	18
Cayuga Nation	10
Oneida Indian Nation in New York	10
Oneida Nation of Wisconsin	10
Onondaga Nation	10
Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe	10
Seneca Nation of Indians	10
Seneca-Cayuga Nation	10
Stockbridge Munsee Community, Wisconsin	10
Tonawanda Band of Seneca	10
Tuscarora Nation	10

The Univ. of Wisconsin, Milwaukee reported making 94% of 33 associated funerary objects available for return to tribes.

The funerary objects were taken along with Native American remains reported by the institution.

31 associated funerary objects made available for return to tribes

at least 2 associated funerary objects not made available for return

Search for institutions holding Native American remains and tribes seeking to reclaim them

Try the University of California, Berkeley, the Chickasaw Nation or Arizona.

Institutions that have not submitted information to the federal government are not listed.

More from The Repatriation Project

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Behind ProPublica’s Reporting on Repatriation

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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

by Ash Ngu and Andrea Suozzo Jan. 11, 2023 Data from Nov. 29, 2023 Additional reporting by Asia Fields, Mary Hudetz and Logan Jaffe for ProPublica and Graham Brewer for NBC News. Additional development by Alec Glassford.