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

New York

Institutions reported making 77% of the more than 3,600 Native American remains taken from New York available for return to tribes under NAGPRA.

remains of 2,851 Native Americans made available for return to tribes
remains of at least 833 Native Americans not made available for return

There are 37 institutions located in New York 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
American Museum of Natural History1,8821,68947%
New York State Museum58453048%
Nassau County Department of Parks and Recreation48800%
SUNY, University at Buffalo1433419%
Rochester Museum and Science Center1211,53993%
New York University, College of Dentistry11315157%
Buffalo Museum of Science7200%
Buffalo State College1500%
Brooklyn Museum4120%
Fort Ticonderoga3667%
Hartwick College3125%
Broome County Historical Society21185%
Chemung Valley Historical Society2133%
Colgate University, Longyear Museum of Anthropology21789%
Cornell University1375%
Hobart and William Smith Colleges100%
Oneida County Historical Society100%
Pember Library and Museum100%
SUNY, Binghamton, Department of Anthropology12796%
SUNY, Potsdam100%
Staten Island Institute of Arts and Sciences1480%
Brooklyn Children's Museum03100%
Columbia University, Department of Anthropology014100%
Geneva Historical Society01100%
Greater Amsterdam School District04100%
Historic Hugeuenot Street02100%
New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation03100%
Rome Historical Society087100%
SUNY, College at Oswego043100%
SUNY, New Paltz08100%
SUNY, University at Albany030100%
Seneca Falls Historical Society01100%
St. Lawrence University01100%
Syracuse University, Department of Anthropology04100%
Tioga County Historical Society02100%
U.S. Department of the Interior016100%
Vassar College014100%

There are 57 institutions that reported Native American remains taken from New York.

InstitutionRemains Not Made Available for ReturnRemains Made Available for Return% of Remains Made Available for Return
New York State Museum45452354%
SUNY, University at Buffalo1273421%
American Museum of Natural History9715962%
Buffalo Museum of Science4600%
Harvard University2025793%
Nassau County Department of Parks and Recreation1600%
New York University, College of Dentistry13528%
University of Indianapolis, Archeology and Forensics Lab1000%
Buffalo State College900%
State Museum of Pennsylvania900%
University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology7542%
Carnegie Museum of Natural History4120%
U.S. Department of Defense4233%
Fort Ticonderoga300%
Broome County Historical Society21185%
Robert S. Peabody Institute of Archaeology, Phillips Academy200%
Seton Hall University2133%
Chemung Valley Historical Society100%
Hartwick College100%
Hobart and William Smith Colleges100%
Oneida County Historical Society100%
Pember Library and Museum100%
SUNY, Binghamton, Department of Anthropology12796%
SUNY, Potsdam100%
University of Kansas100%
Autry Museum of the American West02100%
Beloit College, Logan Museum of Anthropology04100%
Brooklyn Children's Museum03100%
Bruce Museum02100%
Colgate University, Longyear Museum of Anthropology013100%
Cornell University03100%
Field Museum011100%
Florida Department of State01100%
Fruitlands Museums01100%
Geneva Historical Society01100%
Greater Amsterdam School District04100%
Historic Hugeuenot Street02100%
Kutztown University of Pennsylvania021100%
Milwaukee Public Museum01100%
New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation03100%
Oberlin College01100%
Palmer Foundation for Chiropractic History02100%
Peabody Essex Museum01100%
Rochester Museum and Science Center01,536100%
Rome Historical Society087100%
SUNY, College at Oswego043100%
SUNY, New Paltz05100%
SUNY, University at Albany030100%
Seneca Falls Historical Society01100%
Springfield Science Museum03100%
St. Lawrence University01100%
Staten Island Institute of Arts and Sciences04100%
Syracuse University, Department of Anthropology04100%
Tioga County Historical Society02100%
U.S. Department of the Interior031100%
University of California, Berkeley02100%
University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Department of Anthropology01100%
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 York available for return to 25 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
Seneca-Cayuga Nation1,651
Seneca Nation of Indians1,631
Tonawanda Band of Seneca1,613
Onondaga Nation925
Oneida Indian Nation in New York689
Oneida Nation of Wisconsin628
Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe601
Cayuga Nation502
Tuscarora Nation495
Stockbridge Munsee Community, Wisconsin407
Delaware Nation, Oklahoma328
Delaware Tribe of Indians269
Wyandotte Nation253
Sac and Fox Nation of Missouri in Kansas and Nebraska240
Sac and Fox Nation, Oklahoma240
Sac and Fox Tribe of the Mississippi in Iowa240
Haudenosaunee Confederacy181
Mohawk Nation Council of Chiefs Akwesasne69
Cherokee Nation59
Shinnecock Indian Nation22
Mohawk Nation Council of Chiefs7
Mashantucket Pequot Indian Tribe3
Mohegan Tribe of Indians of Connecticut3
Narragansett Indian Tribe3
Unkechaug Indian Nation1

Institutions reported Native American remains taken from 53 counties in New York.

CountyRemains Taken From County Not Made Available for ReturnRemains Made Available for Return% of Remains Made Available for Return
Chautauqua County21114240%
Erie County9326374%
Seneca County771213%
Nassau County5600%
Jefferson County3912075%
Yates County332543%
St. Lawrence County2939%
Suffolk County281940%
Ontario County2524491%
Cayuga County2421890%
Monroe County2025493%
Montgomery County1911386%
Chemung County14318%
Livingston County1424895%
Niagara County145680%
Onondaga County1415492%
Schuyler County139488%
Tioga County1319094%
Queens County11321%
Schoharie County800%
Orleans County61976%
Wayne County41882%
Allegany County3770%
Bronx County34293%
Broome County37996%
Cattaraugus County3125%
Essex County300%
Herkimer County300%
Madison County35995%
Oswego County34093%
Fulton County2675%
Genesee County21083%
Westchester County2880%
Chenango County1583%
Dutchess County12696%
Greene County14398%
Oneida County11091%
Otsego County1150%
Saratoga County1889%
Wyoming County100%
Albany County062100%
Delaware County08100%
Kings County02100%
New York County029100%
Orange County035100%
Rensselaer County03100%
Richmond County049100%
Schenectady County03100%
Steuben County01100%
Sullivan County01100%
Ulster County052100%
Warren County01100%
Washington County06100%
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