Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana Repatriation Records — NAGPRA Database

The Repatriation Database Data from Jan. 6, 2025

Where Native American remains made available for return to the Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana were taken from

Each county is a peak

Height is amount of remains taken from county and made available by institutions for return to tribe

No remains taken from these counties made available for return to tribe

Institution that made remains available for return

Note: Remains of two Native Americans with no location information were made available for return to the Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana.

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.

These 23 institutions made Native American remains available for return to the Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana.

Institution	Remains Made Available for Return To Tribe
University of Alabama Museums	10,268
Tennessee Valley Authority	6,334
Mississippi Dept. of Archives and History	495
University of California, San Diego	478
Alabama Department of Archives & History	115
U.S. Department of the Interior	89
U.S. Department of Defense	74
University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology	22
Southern Methodist University	8
University of South Alabama, Center for Archaeological Studies	7
Florida Department of State	3
Anniston Museum of Natural History	2
Harvard University	2
Indiana University	2
U.S. Department of Agriculture	2
Yale University, Peabody Museum of Natural History	2
American Museum of Natural History	1
Appalachian State University, Department of Anthropology	1
Auburn University	1
Florence Indian Mound Museum	1
Robert S. Peabody Institute of Archaeology, Phillips Academy	1
University of Michigan Museum of Anthropology	1
Wistar Institute	1

Timeline of Native American remains made available for return to the Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana

Tribal and institutional capacity, funding, staffing, regulatory changes, audits, Review Committee decisions and litigation may influence timelines. Under NAGPRA, institutions make Native American remains available for return and determine whether they are culturally affiliated using evidence such as tribal traditional knowledge and biological and archaeological links. From 2010 to 2024, remains could also be returned through disposition based on geographic affiliation. Institutions can also determine that remains are culturally unidentifiable. Tribes may request the transfer of these remains, or they may be reinterred by the institution.

These institutions have not made available for return the remains of at least 13,900 Native Americans that were taken from counties known to be of interest to the Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana.

These are estimates calculated using remains not made available for return from counties that the tribe has previously been eligible to claim remains from, as well as counties that the tribe has indicated interest in to the federal government. They are not comprehensive figures. The tribe may not wish to claim the remains, and other tribes may also seek to claim them.

Institution	Remains Not Made Available for Return That Were Taken From Counties of Interest to the Tribe
Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville	2,872 Frank H. McClung Museum (1,955) Dept. of Anthropology (917)
Univ. of Alabama	2,517
Univ. of Florida	1,083
Univ. of Texas at Austin	944
Florida Dept. of State	921
Harvard Univ.	822
Auburn Univ.	762
Univ. of Georgia	563
Mississippi Dept. of Archives and History	549
Dept. of Defense	538 Mobile District (224) Fort Worth District (105) Nashville District (104) Vicksburg District (52) National Museum of Health and Medicine (35) Galveston District (13) Hurlburt Air Field (2) Tulsa District (2) Fort Benning (1)
Florida State Univ.	309
Tennessee Dept. of Environment and Conservation	296
Mississippi State Univ.	193
Dept. of the Interior	189 Southeast Archeological Center (75) Ocmulgee Mounds NHP (55) Big South Fork NRRA (22) Jean Lafitte NHP and PRES (16) St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge (11) Savannah National Wildlife Refuge (4) Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge (2) Felsenthal National Wildlife Refuge (1) Fort Frederica NM (1) Harris Neck National Wildlife Refuge (1) St. Vincent National Wildlife Refuge (1)
Yale Univ.	157
Georgia Dept. of Natural Resources	130
Univ. of Pennsylvania	130
Univ. of Louisiana at Monroe	106
American Museum of Natural History	93
Univ. of South Alabama	58
Field Museum	53
Brazos Valley Museum of Natural History	39
Anniston Museum of Natural History	38
Univ. of Southern Mississippi	35
Univ. of the Incarnate Word	32
Univ. of Missouri, Columbia	30
Milwaukee Public Museum	25
Louisiana State Univ.	24 Museum of Natural Science (19) Dept. of Anthropology (5)
Georgia Southern Univ.	23
New York State Museum	22
Wagner Free Institute of Science	22
Augusta Museum of History	21
Louisiana Dept. of Culture, Recreation, and Tourism	20
Univ. of Texas at San Antonio	20
Tennessee Valley Authority	19
Houston Museum of Natural Science	18
Nassau County Dept. of Parks and Recreation	18
Univ. of Arkansas	18 Museum (17) Arkansas Archeological Survey (1)
Poverty Point World Heritage Site	17
Auburn Univ. at Montgomery	15
Univ. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill	14
Univ. of West Florida	14
Texas A and M Univ.	13 Dept. of Anthropology (8) Commerce (5)
Dartmouth College	11
Dept. of Agriculture	11 Ocala NF (10) Chattahoochee-Oconee NF (1)
Wisconsin Historical Society	11
Witte Museum	11
Univ. of Michigan	10
Robert S. Peabody Institute of Archaeology	9
Univ. of Memphis	9
Coryell County Sheriff's Dept.	8
Museum of Texas Tech Univ.	7
Texas State Univ.	7
West Texas A and M Univ.	7
Spratt-Mead Museum	6
Texas Historical Commission	6
Columbus Museum	5
Texas Dept. of Transportation	5
Bridgewater College	4
Indiana Univ.	4
State Museum of Pennsylvania	4
Beloit College	3
Dayton Museum of Natural History	3
Texas Parks and Wildlife	3
Carnegie Museum of Natural History	2
Gilcrease Museum	2
Louisiana Cultural Heritage Museum	2
Rochester Museum and Science Center	2
The Heritage Museum of the Texas Hill Country	2
Univ. of Tennessee, Chattanooga	2
West Virginia Department of Arts, Culture and History	2
Charleston Museum	1
Cleveland Museum of Natural History	1
Fort Worth Museum of Science and History	1
Georgia Power	1
Grayson County Frontier Village Museum	1
Louisiana State Exhibit Museum	1
Loxahatchee Historical Society	1
Mercyhurst Univ.	1
Missouri Historical Society	1
Northwestern State Univ. of Louisiana	1
Ohio History Connection	1
Rutgers Univ.	1
Univ. of Alabama, Birmingham	1
Univ. of California, Berkeley	1
Univ. of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign	1
Univ. of Kansas	1
Univ. of Oklahoma	1

Counties of interest used in estimate include: Autauga, Baldwin, Barbour, Bibb, Blount, Bullock, Butler, Calhoun, Chambers, Cherokee, Chilton, Choctaw, Clarke, Clay, Cleburne, Coffee, Colbert, Conecuh, Coosa, Covington, Crenshaw, Cullman, Dale, Dallas, Dekalb, Elmore, Escambia, Etowah, Fayette, Franklin, Geneva, Greene, Hale, Henry, Houston, Jackson, Jefferson, Lamar, Lauderdale, Lawrence, Lee, Limestone, Lowndes, Macon, Madison, Marengo, Marion, Marshall, Mobile, Monroe, Montgomery, Morgan, Perry, Pickens, Pike, Randolph, Russell, Shelby, St. Clair, Sumter, Talladega, Tallapoosa, Tuscaloosa, Walker, Washington, Wilcox and Winston in Alabama. Arkansas, Ashley, Bradley, Calhoun, Chicot, Clark, Clay, Cleburne, Cleveland, Columbia, Craighead, Crittenden, Cross, Dallas, Desha, Drew, Fulton, Grant, Greene, Hempstead, Hot Spring, Howard, Independence, Izard, Jackson, Jefferson, Lafayette, Lawrence, Lee, Lincoln, Little River, Lonoke, Miller, Mississippi, Monroe, Nevada, Ouachita, Phillips, Pike, Poinsett, Prairie, Pulaski, Randolph, Saline, Sevier, Sharp, St. Francis, Stone, Union, White and Woodruff in Arkansas. Alachua, Baker, Bay, Bradford, Brevard, Calhoun, Clay, Columbia, Dixie, Duval, Escambia, Flagler, Franklin, Gadsden, Gilchrist, Gulf, Hamilton, Highlands, Hillsborough, Holmes, Jackson, Jefferson, Lafayette, Lake, Lee, Leon, Levy, Liberty, Madison, Marion, Nassau, Okaloosa, Okeechobee, Orange, Osceola, Putnam, Santa Rosa, Seminole, St. Johns, Sumter, Suwannee, Taylor, Union, Volusia, Wakulla, Walton and Washington in Florida. Appling, Atkinson, Bacon, Baker, Baldwin, Banks, Barrow, Bartow, Ben Hill, Berrien, Bibb, Bleckley, Brantley, Brooks, Bryan, Bulloch, Burke, Butts, Calhoun, Camden, Candler, Carroll, Catoosa, Charlton, Chatham, Chattahoochee, Chattooga, Cherokee, Clarke, Clay, Clayton, Clinch, Cobb, Coffee, Colquitt, Columbia, Cook, Coweta, Crawford, Crisp, Dade, Dawson, Decatur, Dekalb, Dodge, Dooly, Dougherty, Douglas, Early, Echols, Effingham, Elbert, Emanuel, Evans, Fannin, Fayette, Floyd, Forsyth, Franklin, Fulton, Gilmer, Glascock, Glynn, Gordon, Grady, Greene, Gwinnett, Habersham, Hall, Hancock, Haralson, Harris, Hart, Heard, Henry, Houston, Irwin, Jackson, Jasper, Jeff Davis, Jefferson, Jenkins, Johnson, Jones, Lamar, Lanier, Laurens, Lee, Liberty, Lincoln, Long, Lowndes, Lumpkin, Macon, Madison, Marion, Mcduffie, Mcintosh, Meriwether, Miller, Mitchell, Monroe, Montgomery, Morgan, Murray, Muscogee, Newton, Oconee, Oglethorpe, Paulding, Peach, Pickens, Pierce, Pike, Polk, Pulaski, Putnam, Quitman, Rabun, Randolph, Richmond, Rockdale, Schley, Screven, Seminole, Spalding, Stephens, Stewart, Sumter, Talbot, Taliaferro, Tattnall, Taylor, Telfair, Terrell, Thomas, Tift, Toombs, Towns, Treutlen, Troup, Turner, Twiggs, Union, Upson, Walker, Walton, Ware, Warren, Washington, Wayne, Webster, Wheeler, White, Whitfield, Wilcox, Wilkes, Wilkinson and Worth in Georgia. Livingston, Lyon, Marshall, Mccracken and Trigg in Kentucky. Acadia, Allen, Ascension, Assumption, Avoyelles, Beauregard, Bienville, Bossier, Caddo, Calcasieu, Caldwell, Cameron, Catahoula, Claiborne, Concordia, De Soto, East Baton Rouge, East Carroll, East Feliciana, Evangeline, Franklin, Grant, Iberia, Iberville, Jackson, Jefferson, Jefferson Davis, Lafayette, Lafourche, Lasalle, Lincoln, Livingston, Madison, Morehouse, Natchitoches, Orleans, Ouachita, Plaquemines, Pointe Coupee, Rapides, Red River, Richland, Sabine, St. Bernard, St. Charles, St. Helena, St. James, St. John The Baptist, St. Landry, St. Martin, St. Mary, St. Tammany, Tangipahoa, Tensas, Terrebonne, Union, Vermilion, Vernon, Washington, Webster, West Baton Rouge, West Carroll, West Feliciana and Winn in Louisiana. Adams, Alcorn, Amite, Attala, Benton, Bolivar, Calhoun, Carroll, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Claiborne, Clarke, Clay, Coahoma, Copiah, Covington, De Soto, Desoto, Forrest, Franklin, George, Greene, Grenada, Hancock, Harrison, Hinds, Holmes, Humphreys, Issaquena, Itawamba, Jackson, Jasper, Jefferson, Jefferson Davis, Jones, Kemper, Lafayette, Lamar, Lauderdale, Lawrence, Leake, Lee, Leflore, Lincoln, Lowndes, Madison, Marion, Marshall, Monroe, Montgomery, Neshoba, Newton, Noxubee, Oktibbeha, Panola, Pearl River, Perry, Pike, Pontotoc, Prentiss, Quitman, Rankin, Scott, Sharkey, Simpson, Smith, Stone, Sunflower, Tallahatchie, Tate, Tippah, Tishomingo, Tunica, Union, Walthall, Warren, Washington, Wayne, Webster, Wilkinson, Winston, Yalobusha and Yazoo in Mississippi. Muskogee in Oklahoma. Anderson, Bedford, Benton, Bledsoe, Blount, Bradley, Campbell, Cannon, Carroll, Carter, Cheatham, Chester, Claiborne, Clay, Cocke, Coffee, Crockett, Cumberland, Davidson, Decatur, Dekalb, Dickson, Dyer, Fayette, Fentress, Franklin, Gibson, Giles, Grainger, Greene, Grundy, Hamblen, Hamilton, Hancock, Hardeman, Hardin, Hawkins, Haywood, Henderson, Henry, Hickman, Houston, Humphreys, Jackson, Jefferson, Johnson, Knox, Lake, Lauderdale, Lawrence, Lewis, Lincoln, Loudon, Macon, Madison, Marion, Marshall, Maury, Mcminn, Mcnairy, Meigs, Monroe, Montgomery, Moore, Morgan, Obion, Overton, Perry, Pickett, Polk, Putnam, Rhea, Roane, Robertson, Rutherford, Scott, Sequatchie, Sevier, Shelby, Smith, Stewart, Sullivan, Sumner, Tipton, Trousdale, Unicoi, Union, Van Buren, Warren, Washington, Wayne, Weakley, White, Williamson and Wilson in Tennessee. Anderson, Angelina, Austin, Bastrop, Bell, Bexar, Blanco, Bosque, Bowie, Brazoria, Brazos, Burleson, Burnet, Caldwell, Camp, Cass, Chambers, Cherokee, Clay, Collin, Colorado, Comal, Comanche, Cooke, Coryell, Dallas, Delta, Denton, Dewitt, Ellis, Erath, Falls, Fannin, Fayette, Fort Bend, Franklin, Freestone, Galveston, Gonzales, Grayson, Gregg, Grimes, Guadalupe, Hamilton, Hardin, Harris, Harrison, Hays, Henderson, Hill, Hood, Hopkins, Houston, Hunt, Jack, Jasper, Jefferson, Johnson, Kaufman, Lamar, Lampasas, Lavaca, Lee, Leon, Liberty, Limestone, Madison, Marion, Matagorda, Mclennan, Milam, Mills, Montague, Montgomery, Morris, Nacogdoches, Navarro, Orange, Palo Pinto, Panola, Parker, Polk, Rains, Red River, Robertson, Rockwall, Rusk, Sabine, San Augustine, Shelby, Smith, Somervell, Tarrant, Titus, Travis, Trinity, Tyler, Upshur, Van Zandt, Walker, Waller, Washington, Wharton, Williamson, Wilson, Wise and Wood in Texas.

Search for institutions holding Native American remains and tribes seeking to reclaim them

Try the University of California, Berkeley, the Chickasaw Nation or Arizona.

Institutions that have not submitted information to the federal government are not listed.

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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

by Ash Ngu and Andrea Suozzo Jan. 11, 2023 Data from Jan. 6, 2025 Additional reporting by Asia Fields, Mary Hudetz and Logan Jaffe for ProPublica and Graham Brewer for NBC News. Additional development by Alec Glassford.