Skip to content
ProPublica
Donate
ProPublica
Donate
The Repatriation Database Data from Nov. 29, 2023

New Jersey

Institutions reported making 96% of the more than 400 Native American remains taken from New Jersey available for return to tribes under NAGPRA.

remains of 427 Native Americans made available for return to tribes
remains of at least 19 Native Americans not made available for return

There are 10 institutions located in New Jersey 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
Seton Hall University72679%
New Jersey State Museum520998%
Rutgers University, Geology Museum200%
Rutgers University, Zimmerli Art Museum200%
Morris Museum1150%
Newark Museum100%
Lambertville Historical Society01100%
Montclair Art Museum01100%
Princeton University019100%
Warren County Cultural and Heritage Commission, Shippen Manor03100%

There are 21 institutions that reported Native American remains taken from New Jersey.

InstitutionRemains Not Made Available for ReturnRemains Made Available for Return% of Remains Made Available for Return
Rochester Museum and Science Center400%
University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology4343%
New York University, College of Dentistry300%
University of California, Berkeley2467%
American Museum of Natural History15498%
Gilcrease Museum100%
Nassau County Department of Parks and Recreation100%
Newark Museum100%
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign100%
Yale University, Peabody Museum of Natural History100%
Field Museum030100%
Harvard University047100%
Morris Museum01100%
Mutter Museum, College of Physicians of Philadelphia06100%
New Jersey State Museum0207100%
Princeton University04100%
Robert S. Peabody Institute of Archaeology, Phillips Academy05100%
Seton Hall University019100%
Temple University, Department of Anthropology09100%
U.S. Department of the Interior035100%
Warren County Cultural and Heritage Commission, Shippen Manor03100%
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 Jersey available for return to four 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
Delaware Nation, Oklahoma427
Stockbridge Munsee Community, Wisconsin427
Delaware Tribe of Indians391
Cherokee Nation69

Institutions reported Native American remains taken from 15 counties in New Jersey.

CountyRemains Taken From County Not Made Available for ReturnRemains Made Available for Return% of Remains Made Available for Return
Sussex County59395%
Bergen County1375%
Burlington County11794%
Cumberland County13297%
Gloucester County1267%
Hudson County100%
Morris County12296%
Union County1267%
Camden County07100%
Hunterdon County02100%
Mercer County0184100%
Middlesex County02100%
Monmouth County018100%
Ocean County013100%
Warren County023100%
Get in touch

Know how an institution is handling repatriation? Have a personal story to share? We'd like to hear from you.

Learn how to report on repatriation

Watch an informational webinar with our reporters.

Sign up for the newsletter
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