West Virginia
Institutions reported making 66% of the more than 1,600 Native American remains taken from West Virginia available for return to tribes under NAGPRA.
There are four institutions located in West Virginia that reported Native American remains taken from across the country.
Institution | Remains Not Made Available for Return | Remains Made Available for Return | % of Remains Made Available for Return |
---|---|---|---|
West Virginia Division of Culture and History | 365 | 1,031 | 74% |
Davis and Elkins College | 1 | 0 | 0% |
Marshall University | 0 | 38 | 100% |
U.S. Department of Defense | 0 | 90 | 100% |
There are 16 institutions that reported Native American remains taken from West Virginia.
Institution | Remains Not Made Available for Return | Remains Made Available for Return | % of Remains Made Available for Return |
---|---|---|---|
West Virginia Division of Culture and History | 340 | 1,031 | 75% |
Carnegie Museum of Natural History | 106 | 0 | 0% |
University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology | 47 | 0 | 0% |
Yale University, Peabody Museum of Natural History | 42 | 0 | 0% |
U.S. Department of Defense | 8 | 10 | 56% |
University of Kentucky, William S. Webb Museum of Anthropology | 6 | 0 | 0% |
Ohio History Connection (formerly the Ohio Historical Society) | 4 | 0 | 0% |
State Museum of Pennsylvania | 3 | 0 | 0% |
American Museum of Natural History | 1 | 0 | 0% |
Dayton Museum of Natural History | 1 | 0 | 0% |
Indiana University | 1 | 0 | 0% |
Louisiana State Exhibit Museum | 1 | 0 | 0% |
Texas State University | 1 | 0 | 0% |
University of Akron | 1 | 0 | 0% |
Marshall University | 0 | 37 | 100% |
University of Colorado Museum | 0 | 1 | 100% |
Institutions made Native American remains taken from West Virginia available for return to 57 tribes.
Tribe | Remains Made Available for Return to Tribe |
---|---|
Absentee-Shawnee Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma | 1,078 |
Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma | 1,078 |
Shawnee Tribe | 1,078 |
Cherokee Nation | 1,069 |
Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians | 1,069 |
United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians in Oklahoma | 1,069 |
Cayuga Nation | 1,068 |
Delaware Nation, Oklahoma | 1,068 |
Delaware Tribe of Indians | 1,068 |
Oneida Indian Nation in New York | 1,068 |
Oneida Nation of Wisconsin | 1,068 |
Onondaga Nation | 1,068 |
Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe | 1,068 |
Seneca Nation of Indians | 1,068 |
Seneca-Cayuga Nation | 1,068 |
Stockbridge Munsee Community, Wisconsin | 1,068 |
Tonawanda Band of Seneca | 1,068 |
Tuscarora Nation | 1,068 |
Wyandotte Nation | 1,068 |
Bad River Band of the Lake Superior Tribe of Chippewa Indians of the Bad River Reservation, Wisconsin | 37 |
Bay Mills Indian Community, Michigan | 37 |
Bois Forte Band (Nett Lake) of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, Minnesota | 37 |
Catawba Indian Nation | 37 |
Chickahominy Indian Tribe | 37 |
Chickahominy Indian Tribe - Eastern Division | 37 |
Chippewa Cree Indians of the Rocky Boy's Reservation, Montana | 37 |
Fond du Lac Band of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, Minnesota | 37 |
Grand Portage Band of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, Minnesota | 37 |
Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, Michigan | 37 |
Kaw Nation, Oklahoma | 37 |
Keweenaw Bay Indian Community, Michigan | 37 |
Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians of Wisconsin | 37 |
Lac Vieux Desert Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians of Michigan | 37 |
Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians of the Lac du Flambeau Reservation of Wisconsin | 37 |
Leech Lake Band of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, Minnesota | 37 |
Mille Lacs Band of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, Minnesota | 37 |
Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, Minnesota | 37 |
Monacan Indian Tribe | 37 |
Nansemond Indian Nation | 37 |
Omaha Tribe of Nebraska | 37 |
Osage Nation | 37 |
Pamunkey Indian Tribe | 37 |
Ponca Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma | 37 |
Ponca Tribe of Nebraska | 37 |
Quapaw Nation | 37 |
Rappahannock Tribe, Inc. | 37 |
Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians of Wisconsin | 37 |
Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians, Minnesota | 37 |
Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe of Michigan | 37 |
Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, Michigan | 37 |
Sokaogon Chippewa Community, Wisconsin | 37 |
St. Croix Chippewa Indians of Wisconsin | 37 |
Tunica-Biloxi Indian Tribe | 37 |
Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians of North Dakota | 37 |
Upper Mattaponi Tribe | 37 |
White Earth Band of Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, Minnesota | 37 |
Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe of the Cheyenne River Reservation, South Dakota | 33 |
Institutions reported Native American remains taken from 29 counties in West Virginia.
County | Remains Taken From County Not Made Available for Return | Remains Made Available for Return | % of Remains Made Available for Return |
---|---|---|---|
Marshall County | 192 | 0 | 0% |
Mason County | 61 | 2 | 3% |
Ohio County | 54 | 0 | 0% |
Wood County | 41 | 1 | 2% |
Logan County | 33 | 0 | 0% |
Monongalia County | 32 | 0 | 0% |
Morgan County | 31 | 0 | 0% |
Berkeley County | 20 | 0 | 0% |
Hancock County | 16 | 0 | 0% |
Kanawha County | 15 | 0 | 0% |
Taylor County | 7 | 0 | 0% |
Fayette County | 6 | 0 | 0% |
Jefferson County | 6 | 0 | 0% |
Nicholas County | 6 | 0 | 0% |
Boone County | 5 | 0 | 0% |
Pleasants County | 5 | 0 | 0% |
Cabell County | 4 | 6 | 60% |
Jackson County | 4 | 0 | 0% |
Brooke County | 3 | 0 | 0% |
Hampshire County | 2 | 0 | 0% |
Preston County | 2 | 0 | 0% |
Putnam County | 2 | 1,031 | 100% |
Raleigh County | 2 | 0 | 0% |
Wyoming County | 2 | 0 | 0% |
Hardy County | 1 | 0 | 0% |
Pocahontas County | 1 | 0 | 0% |
Summers County | 1 | 11 | 92% |
Tucker County | 1 | 0 | 0% |
Mercer County | 0 | 26 | 100% |
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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