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The Repatriation Database Data from Nov. 29, 2023

Michigan

Institutions reported making 79% of the more than 3,100 Native American remains taken from Michigan available for return to tribes under NAGPRA.

remains of 2,501 Native Americans made available for return to tribes
remains of at least 674 Native Americans not made available for return

There are 32 institutions located in Michigan 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
University of Michigan Museum of Anthropology78189453%
Grand Rapids Public Museum7515968%
Michigan State Historic Preservation Office302747%
Cranbrook Institute of Science263960%
Wayne State University209282%
Kingman Museum, Inc.3770%
Alma College2133%
Central Michigan University, Museum of Cultural and Natural History214599%
Kalamazoo Valley Museum2360%
Bay County Historical Society01100%
Berrien County Sheriff's Office01100%
Besser Museum for Northeast Michigan09100%
City of Saugatuck03100%
City of Traverse City02100%
Detroit Institute of Arts023100%
Grand Valley State University0154100%
Historical Society of Saginaw County, Inc.020100%
Lakeshore Museum Center09100%
Michigan Department of Natural Resources08100%
Michigan Department of Transportation013100%
Michigan History Center010100%
Michigan State Police014100%
Michigan State University0544100%
Michigan Technological University01100%
Museum of Ojibwa Culture and Marquette Mission Park - City of St. Ignace08100%
Port Huron Museum01100%
Sloan Museum09100%
St Joseph County Sheriff's Department01100%
The Region of Three Oaks Museum01100%
U.S. Department of Agriculture01100%
U.S. Department of the Interior02100%
Western Michigan University, Department of Anthropology079100%

There are 52 institutions that reported Native American remains taken from Michigan.

InstitutionRemains Not Made Available for ReturnRemains Made Available for Return% of Remains Made Available for Return
University of Michigan Museum of Anthropology56188861%
Milwaukee Public Museum431526%
Michigan State Historic Preservation Office232754%
University of Toledo144677%
Wayne State University149287%
Cranbrook Institute of Science113978%
Alma College2133%
Grand Rapids Public Museum215199%
Kingman Museum, Inc.2467%
Earlham College100%
University of California, Berkeley100%
American Museum of Natural History043100%
Bay County Historical Society01100%
Beloit College, Logan Museum of Anthropology01100%
Berrien County Sheriff's Office01100%
Besser Museum for Northeast Michigan09100%
Central Michigan University, Museum of Cultural and Natural History0144100%
City of Saugatuck03100%
City of Traverse City01100%
Detroit Institute of Arts012100%
Field Museum042100%
Grand Valley State University0154100%
Harvard University0101100%
Hastings Museum05100%
Historical Society of Saginaw County, Inc.020100%
Kalamazoo Valley Museum03100%
Lakeshore Museum Center09100%
Michigan Department of Natural Resources08100%
Michigan Department of Transportation013100%
Michigan History Center010100%
Michigan State Police014100%
Michigan State University0488100%
Michigan Technological University01100%
Montclair Art Museum01100%
Museum of Ojibwa Culture and Marquette Mission Park - City of St. Ignace08100%
New York University, College of Dentistry01100%
Oshkosh Public Museum03100%
Port Huron Museum01100%
Princeton University012100%
Putnam Museum02100%
Robert S. Peabody Institute of Archaeology, Phillips Academy01100%
Sloan Museum09100%
St Joseph County Sheriff's Department01100%
The Region of Three Oaks Museum01100%
Toledo Zoological Society08100%
U.S. Department of Agriculture01100%
U.S. Department of the Interior013100%
University of Nebraska State Museum02100%
University of Notre Dame, Department of Anthropology02100%
University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology09100%
Western Michigan University, Department of Anthropology079100%
Wisconsin Historical Society01100%
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 Michigan available for return to 57 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
Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe of Michigan2,022
Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians, Michigan1,840
Lac Vieux Desert Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians of Michigan1,828
Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, Michigan1,821
Bay Mills Indian Community, Michigan1,820
Keweenaw Bay Indian Community, Michigan1,815
Little River Band of Ottawa Indians, Michigan1,749
Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, Michigan1,727
Match-e-be-nash-she-wish Band of Pottawatomi Indians of Michigan1,454
Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians, Michigan and Indiana1,426
Nottawaseppi Huron Band of the Potawatomi, Michigan (formerly the Huron Potawatomi, Inc.)1,256
Hannahville Indian Community, Michigan1,216
Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians of Wisconsin1,190
Chippewa Cree Indians of the Rocky Boy's Reservation, Montana1,181
Mille Lacs Band of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, Minnesota1,150
Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians of Wisconsin1,149
Bad River Band of the Lake Superior Tribe of Chippewa Indians of the Bad River Reservation, Wisconsin1,147
Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians of the Lac du Flambeau Reservation of Wisconsin1,147
Leech Lake Band of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, Minnesota1,147
White Earth Band of Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, Minnesota1,147
Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians, Minnesota1,139
Fond du Lac Band of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, Minnesota1,133
Grand Portage Band of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, Minnesota1,133
St. Croix Chippewa Indians of Wisconsin1,133
Bois Forte Band (Nett Lake) of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, Minnesota1,131
Sokaogon Chippewa Community, Wisconsin1,131
Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians of North Dakota1,131
Ottawa Tribe of Oklahoma1,013
Wyandotte Nation971
Prairie Band of Potawatomi Nation889
Forest County Potawatomi Community, Wisconsin877
Citizen Potawatomi Nation, Oklahoma847
Quechan Tribe of the Fort Yuma Indian Reservation, California and Arizona600
Sac and Fox Nation, Oklahoma599
Miami Tribe of Oklahoma511
Sac and Fox Nation of Missouri in Kansas and Nebraska488
Sac and Fox Tribe of the Mississippi in Iowa488
Kickapoo Tribe of Indians of the Kickapoo Reservation in Kansas422
Kickapoo Tribe of Oklahoma422
Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas421
Peoria Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma360
Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma319
Absentee-Shawnee Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma318
Shawnee Tribe318
Delaware Nation, Oklahoma310
Delaware Tribe of Indians309
Tonawanda Band of Seneca308
Seneca Nation of Indians304
Seneca-Cayuga Nation304
Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, Minnesota288
Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians of Montana265
Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin135
Grand River Band of Ottawa Indians103
Stockbridge Munsee Community, Wisconsin48
Ho-Chunk Nation of Wisconsin2
Oneida Nation of Wisconsin1
Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska1

Institutions reported Native American remains taken from 69 counties in Michigan.

CountyRemains Taken From County Not Made Available for ReturnRemains Made Available for Return% of Remains Made Available for Return
Macomb County240218%
Saginaw County17426861%
Wayne County6715770%
Menominee County454248%
St. Clair County212655%
Montmorency County20313%
Oceana County185375%
Midland County17419%
Monroe County1710386%
Oakland County118689%
Presque Isle County700%
Tuscola County72779%
Delta County6960%
Ionia County41376%
Alcona County2133%
Benzie County200%
Arenac County1480%
Chippewa County1267%
Hillsdale County1150%
Huron County11091%
Keweenaw County11794%
Lenawee County12596%
Mackinac County1261100%
Sanilac County11292%
Shiawassee County14298%
Washtenaw County17099%
Allegan County072100%
Alpena County034100%
Antrim County05100%
Baraga County01100%
Barry County05100%
Bay County0160100%
Berrien County035100%
Branch County03100%
Calhoun County02100%
Cass County08100%
Charlevoix County03100%
Cheboygan County06100%
Clinton County038100%
Eaton County01100%
Emmet County016100%
Genesee County030100%
Gladwin County02100%
Gogebic County03100%
Grand Traverse County06100%
Gratiot County05100%
Ingham County02100%
Iosco County021100%
Isabella County019100%
Jackson County025100%
Kalamazoo County04100%
Kent County0130100%
Lake County03100%
Lapeer County0250100%
Leelanau County09100%
Livingston County03100%
Marquette County02100%
Mecosta County08100%
Missaukee County03100%
Montcalm County011100%
Muskegon County010100%
Newaygo County0117100%
Ogemaw County01100%
Otsego County01100%
Ottawa County090100%
Roscommon County03100%
St. Joseph County011100%
Van Buren County01100%
Wexford County04100%
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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