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The Repatriation Database Data from Nov. 29, 2023

Indiana

Institutions reported making 35% of the more than 3,000 Native American remains taken from Indiana available for return to tribes under NAGPRA.

remains of 1,039 Native Americans made available for return to tribes
remains of at least 1,968 Native Americans not made available for return

There are 23 institutions located in Indiana that reported Native American remains taken from across the country.

InstitutionRemains Not Made Available for ReturnRemains Made Available for Return% of Remains Made Available for Return
Indiana University4,8381,02317%
Ball State University, Applied Anthropology Laboratories2402911%
Indiana State University23200%
Earlham College8922%
Indiana State Museum and Historic Sites Corporation, State of Indiana7710658%
University of Indianapolis, Archeology and Forensics Lab4600%
Purdue University4200%
The History Museum2800%
Tippecanoe County Historical Association1600%
Henry County Historical Society1500%
New Harmony Workingmen's Institute1400%
University of Notre Dame, Department of Anthropology6225%
U.S. Department of Agriculture500%
Goshen College400%
University of Southern Indiana300%
Miami County Museum100%
Sullivan County Historical Society, Inc.100%
Allen County Museum, Fort Wayne Historical Society09100%
Hamilton County Department of Parks and Recreation034100%
Indiana Department of Natural Resources, Division of Historic Preservation and Archaeology033100%
Indiana Department of Transportation012100%
Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne-Archaeological Survey038100%
U.S. Department of Justice09100%

There are 47 institutions that reported Native American remains taken from Indiana.

InstitutionRemains Not Made Available for ReturnRemains Made Available for Return% of Remains Made Available for Return
Indiana University1,20572538%
Ball State University, Applied Anthropology Laboratories2332610%
Indiana State University22400%
Indiana State Museum and Historic Sites Corporation, State of Indiana7210660%
Purdue University4200%
Robert S. Peabody Institute of Archaeology, Phillips Academy3000%
Cincinnati Museum Center, Museum of Natural History and Science2700%
Earlham College1800%
Grand Rapids Public Museum1700%
Field Museum10429%
New Harmony Workingmen's Institute900%
Harvard University800%
Tippecanoe County Historical Association800%
Filson Historical Society700%
University of Notre Dame, Department of Anthropology600%
U.S. Department of Agriculture500%
University of Indianapolis, Archeology and Forensics Lab500%
Minnesota Indian Affairs Council400%
Northern Kentucky University400%
San Bernardino County Museum400%
Henry County Historical Society300%
U.S. Department of Defense300%
University of Louisville300%
University of Southern Indiana300%
Illinois State Museum200%
The History Museum200%
University of California, Berkeley200%
University of Cincinnati, Department of Anthropology200%
University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology2675%
University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Department of Anthropology200%
Carnegie Museum of Natural History100%
Hastings Museum100%
Miami County Museum100%
Rochester Museum and Science Center100%
University of Nebraska State Museum100%
University of New Mexico, Maxwell Museum of Anthropology100%
Allen County Museum, Fort Wayne Historical Society09100%
Beloit College, Logan Museum of Anthropology01100%
Coe College03100%
Hamilton County Department of Parks and Recreation034100%
Heard Museum01100%
Indiana Department of Natural Resources, Division of Historic Preservation and Archaeology033100%
Indiana Department of Transportation012100%
Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne-Archaeological Survey037100%
Michigan State University01100%
Princeton University01100%
U.S. Department of Justice040100%
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 Indiana available for return to 85 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
Miami Tribe of Oklahoma969
Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma898
Delaware Nation, Oklahoma887
Peoria Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma874
Shawnee Tribe869
Delaware Tribe of Indians850
Absentee-Shawnee Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma835
Quapaw Nation736
Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians, Michigan and Indiana133
Osage Nation103
Kickapoo Tribe of Indians of the Kickapoo Reservation in Kansas43
United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians in Oklahoma41
Citizen Potawatomi Nation, Oklahoma30
Forest County Potawatomi Community, Wisconsin30
Hannahville Indian Community, Michigan30
Prairie Band of Potawatomi Nation29
Match-e-be-nash-she-wish Band of Pottawatomi Indians of Michigan27
Nottawaseppi Huron Band of the Potawatomi, Michigan (formerly the Huron Potawatomi, Inc.)27
Stockbridge Munsee Community, Wisconsin8
Bad River Band of the Lake Superior Tribe of Chippewa Indians of the Bad River Reservation, Wisconsin5
Bois Forte Band (Nett Lake) of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, Minnesota5
Fond du Lac Band of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, Minnesota5
Grand Portage Band of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, Minnesota5
Keweenaw Bay Indian Community, Michigan5
Kickapoo Tribe of Oklahoma5
Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians of Wisconsin5
Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians of the Lac du Flambeau Reservation of Wisconsin5
Leech Lake Band of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, Minnesota5
Mille Lacs Band of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, Minnesota5
Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians of Wisconsin5
Sokaogon Chippewa Community, Wisconsin5
White Earth Band of Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, Minnesota5
Ho-Chunk Nation of Wisconsin4
Kaw Nation, Oklahoma4
Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, Minnesota4
Omaha Tribe of Nebraska4
Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska4
Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe of the Cheyenne River Reservation, South Dakota3
Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe of South Dakota3
Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska3
Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma3
Kiowa Indian Tribe of Oklahoma3
Lower Sioux Indian Community in the State of Minnesota3
Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin3
Oglala Sioux Tribe3
Otoe-Missouria Tribe of Indians, Oklahoma3
Ottawa Tribe of Oklahoma3
Prairie Island Indian Community in the State of Minnesota3
Sac and Fox Nation of Missouri in Kansas and Nebraska3
Sac and Fox Nation, Oklahoma3
Sac and Fox Tribe of the Mississippi in Iowa3
Santee Sioux Nation, Nebraska3
Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate of the Lake Traverse Reservation, South Dakota3
Spirit Lake Tribe, North Dakota3
Standing Rock Sioux Tribe of North and South Dakota3
Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Reservation, North Dakota3
Upper Sioux Community, Minnesota3
Yankton Sioux Tribe of South Dakota3
Bay Mills Indian Community, Michigan2
Chippewa Cree Indians of the Rocky Boy's Reservation, Montana2
Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, Michigan2
Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas2
Lac Vieux Desert Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians of Michigan2
Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians of Montana2
Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians, Minnesota2
Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe of Michigan2
Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, Michigan2
St. Croix Chippewa Indians of Wisconsin2
Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians of North Dakota2
Wyandotte Nation2
Burt Lake Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians1
Cayuga Nation1
Cherokee Nation1
Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians1
Grand River Band of Ottawa Indians1
Little River Band of Ottawa Indians, Michigan1
Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians, Michigan1
Oneida Indian Nation in New York1
Oneida Nation of Wisconsin1
Onondaga Nation1
Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe1
Seneca Nation of Indians1
Seneca-Cayuga Nation1
Tonawanda Band of Seneca1
Tuscarora Nation1

Institutions reported Native American remains taken from 73 counties in Indiana.

CountyRemains Taken From County Not Made Available for ReturnRemains Made Available for Return% of Remains Made Available for Return
Warrick County26500%
Henry County150159%
Posey County13700%
Spencer County1363219%
Dearborn County13200%
Clark County125118%
Greene County10300%
Marion County7400%
Perry County6200%
Sullivan County5900%
Pike County5300%
Bartholomew County5100%
Randolph County4500%
Daviess County4000%
Franklin County4000%
Hamilton County353651%
Vermillion County3500%
Carroll County2900%
Harrison County264262%
Lawrence County2400%
Tippecanoe County2314%
Vigo County2200%
Jennings County2100%
St. Joseph County2115%
Madison County19727%
LaPorte County181951%
White County1600%
Kosciusko County1300%
Shelby County1300%
Jackson County1200%
Knox County1200%
Wayne County1100%
Crawford County900%
Porter County8538%
Delaware County7750%
Gibson County700%
Parke County700%
Rush County700%
Dubois County6114%
Huntington County600%
Vanderburgh County672599%
Blackford County500%
Floyd County59995%
Ohio County500%
Lake County400%
Fulton County300%
Howard County300%
Marshall County300%
Noble County300%
Jefferson County200%
Johnson County200%
Monroe County200%
Montgomery County200%
Orange County200%
Ripley County200%
Allen County12396%
Boone County100%
Cass County1150%
Clay County100%
DeKalb County100%
Fountain County100%
Grant County100%
Hancock County100%
Hendricks County100%
LaGrange County100%
Martin County100%
Miami County100%
Morgan County100%
Owen County100%
Wabash County100%
Starke County04100%
Steuben County01100%
Whitley County02100%
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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