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The Repatriation Database Data from Nov. 29, 2023

New Hampshire

Institutions reported making 98% of the remains of 56 Native Americans taken from New Hampshire available for return to tribes under NAGPRA.

remains of 55 Native Americans made available for return to tribes
remains of at least 1 Native American not made available for return

There are five institutions located in New Hampshire 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
Dartmouth College, Hood Museum of Art151040%
New Hampshire Division of Historical Resources1480%
University of New Hampshire1889%
Franklin Pierce University011100%
Manchester Historical Society03100%

There are six institutions that reported Native American remains taken from New Hampshire.

InstitutionRemains Not Made Available for ReturnRemains Made Available for Return% of Remains Made Available for Return
New Hampshire Division of Historical Resources1480%
Dartmouth College, Hood Museum of Art01100%
Franklin Pierce University011100%
Harvard University028100%
Manchester Historical Society03100%
University of New Hampshire08100%
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 New Hampshire available for return to five 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
Abenaki Nation of Missisquoi54
Abenaki Nation of New Hampshire36
Cowasuck Band of the Pennacook-Abenaki People8
First Nation of New Hampshire8
Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah)1

Institutions reported Native American remains taken from seven counties in New Hampshire.

CountyRemains Taken From County Not Made Available for ReturnRemains Made Available for Return% of Remains Made Available for Return
Hillsborough County13397%
Carroll County06100%
Cheshire County01100%
Merrimack County03100%
Rockingham County07100%
Strafford County01100%
Sullivan 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