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The Repatriation Database Data from Nov. 29, 2023

North Carolina

Institutions reported making 30% of the more than 1,700 Native American remains taken from North Carolina available for return to tribes under NAGPRA.

remains of 523 Native Americans made available for return to tribes
remains of at least 1,241 Native Americans not made available for return

There are 10 institutions located in North Carolina 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 North Carolina at Chapel Hill64144041%
North Carolina Office of State Archaeology262207%
U.S. Department of Defense21400%
East Carolina University, David Phelps Archaeology Laboratory1526931%
Wake Forest University, Archeology Labs9800%
Discovery Place9110%
U.S. Department of the Interior100%
University of North Carolina at Charlotte100%
Appalachian State University, Department of Anthropology07100%
Schiele Museum of Natural History03100%

There are 14 institutions that reported Native American remains taken from North Carolina.

InstitutionRemains Not Made Available for ReturnRemains Made Available for Return% of Remains Made Available for Return
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill46542348%
North Carolina Office of State Archaeology262207%
U.S. Department of Defense21500%
East Carolina University, David Phelps Archaeology Laboratory1526931%
Wake Forest University, Archeology Labs9800%
Harvard University4400%
American Museum of Natural History100%
Carnegie Museum of Natural History100%
Earlham College100%
U.S. Department of the Interior100%
University of North Carolina at Charlotte100%
Appalachian State University, Department of Anthropology06100%
Schiele Museum of Natural History03100%
University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology02100%
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 North Carolina 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
Cherokee Nation252
Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians252
United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians in Oklahoma252
Catawba Indian Nation202
Tuscarora Nation69

Institutions reported Native American remains taken from 55 counties in North Carolina.

CountyRemains Taken From County Not Made Available for ReturnRemains Made Available for Return% of Remains Made Available for Return
Montgomery County26300%
Onslow County23100%
Currituck County13200%
Yadkin County12900%
Cumberland County4700%
Halifax County4600%
Carteret County4300%
Stanly County4200%
Brunswick County3400%
Davidson County3100%
Orange County2800%
Randolph County2428%
New Hanover County1800%
Robeson County1500%
Dare County1400%
Richmond County1300%
Warren County1300%
Wake County1100%
Alamance County1000%
Wilkes County1000%
Stokes County914394%
Bertie County74085%
Catawba County700%
Chowan County700%
Rockingham County75288%
Surry County700%
Chatham County500%
Anson County400%
Beaufort County300%
Burke County300%
Davie County300%
Forsyth County300%
Harnett County200%
Lincoln County200%
Camden County100%
Craven County100%
Durham County100%
Gaston County1583%
Haywood County14598%
Northampton County100%
Pamlico County100%
Pasquotank County100%
Pender County100%
Rowan County100%
Buncombe County058100%
Cherokee County06100%
Clay County02100%
Greene County027100%
Hertford County01100%
Jackson County012100%
Macon County093100%
Martin County01100%
Mitchell County013100%
Swain County017100%
Watauga County03100%
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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