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The Repatriation Database Data from Nov. 29, 2023

Jena Band of Choctaw Indians

A federally recognized Indian tribe with headquarters in Louisiana

Institutions reported making the remains of more than 16,100 Native Americans available for return to the Jena Band of Choctaw Indians.

The tribe was also eligible to claim more than 5,800 associated funerary objects.

Institutions continue to hold the remains of at least 5,000 Native Americans taken from counties known to be of interest to the tribe.*

Where Native American remains made available for return to the Jena Band of Choctaw Indians 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
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Note: Remains of five Native Americans with no location information were made available for return to the Jena Band of Choctaw Indians.
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 24 institutions made Native American remains available for return to the Jena Band of Choctaw Indians.

InstitutionRemains Made Available for Return To Tribe
University of Alabama Museums10,245
Tennessee Valley Authority4,871
University of California, San Diego478
Mississippi State University, Cobb Institute of Archaeology157
U.S. Department of the Interior133
Florida State University, Department of Anthropology72
Mississippi Dept. of Archives and History66
Alabama Department of Archives & History37
Louisiana State University26
Indiana University21
University of Oklahoma15
Bryn Mawr College3
U.S. Department of Defense3
Anniston Museum of Natural History2
Baylor University, Mayborn Museum Complex2
Denver Museum of Nature and Science2
University of Denver, Museum of Anthropology2
University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology2
Appalachian State University, Department of Anthropology1
Florence Indian Mound Museum1
New York University, College of Dentistry1
Robert S. Peabody Institute of Archaeology, Phillips Academy1
University of Michigan Museum of Anthropology1
Yale University, Peabody Museum of Natural History1

Timeline of Native American remains made available for return to the Jena Band of Choctaw Indians

Tribal and institutional capacity, funding, staffing, regulatory changes, audits, Review Committee decisions and litigation may influence timelines. Under NAGPRA, institutions determine whether Native American remains may be returned through cultural affiliation using evidence such as tribal traditional knowledge and biological and archaeological links, or through disposition based on geographic affiliation.

These institutions have not made available for return the remains of at least 5,000 Native Americans that were taken from counties known to be of interest to the Jena Band of Choctaw Indians.

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.
InstitutionRemains Not Made Available for Return That Were Taken From Counties of Interest to the Tribe
Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville2,154
Frank H. McClung Museum (2,108)
Dept. of Anthropology (46)
Univ. of Alabama1,733
Dept. of the Interior202
Natchitoches National Fish Hatchery (100)
Tensas River National Wildlife Refuge (66)
Jean Lafitte NHP and PRES (16)
Tennessee National Wildlife Refuge (13)
Southeast Archeological Center (5)
Bayou Sauvage National Wildlife Refuge (1)
D'Arbonne National Wildlife Refuge (1)
Mississippi State Univ.177
Dept. of Defense128
Tulsa District (109)
National Museum of Health and Medicine (11)
Nashville District (6)
Hurlburt Air Field (2)
Yale Univ.110
Univ. of Louisiana at Monroe105
Mississippi Dept. of Archives and History81
Harvard Univ.74
Louisiana State Univ.58
Museum of Natural Science (53)
Dept. of Anthropology (5)
Tennessee Dept. of Environment and Conservation41
Univ. of Florida, Florida Museum of Natural History + Florida Dept. of State25
Univ. of Texas at Austin23
Louisiana Dept. of Culture, Recreation, and Tourism21
American Museum of Natural History19
Poverty Point World Heritage Site17
Florida Dept. of State15
Univ. of Oklahoma15
Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History (14)
Oklahoma Archeological Survey (1)
Univ. of Pennsylvania15
Florida State Univ.12
Univ. of Kentucky12
Alabama Dept. of Archives & History10
Univ. of West Florida8
Univ. of North Texas6
State Museum of Pennsylvania4
Univ. of Florida4
Beloit College3
Milwaukee Public Museum3
Robert S. Peabody Institute of Archaeology3
Bridgewater College2
Gilcrease Museum2
Texas A and M Univ.2
Univ. of South Alabama2
Univ. of Tennessee at Chattanooga2
Louisiana Cultural Heritage Museum1
Louisiana State Exhibit Museum1
No Man's Land Historical Society1
Northwestern State Univ. of Louisiana1
Univ. of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign1
Univ. of Memphis1
Univ. of Michigan1
Counties of interest used in estimate include: Colbert, Franklin, Hale, Jackson, Lauderdale, Lawrence, Limestone, Lowndes, Madison, Marshall, Montgomery, Morgan and Tuscaloosa in Alabama. Escambia, Gadsden, Okaloosa, Santa Rosa and Walton in Florida. 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, Claiborne, Clay, De Soto, Hancock, Lafayette, Lee, Monroe, Oktibbeha, Panola, Pontotoc, Prentiss, Quitman, Tunica, Warren and Yalobusha in Mississippi. Bryan, Caddo, Carter, Coal, Garvin, Marshall, Mcclain and Pontotoc in Oklahoma. Anderson, Benton, Bradley, Campbell, Claiborne, Coffee, Franklin, Hamilton, Henry, Humphreys, Jefferson, Loudon, Marshall, Maury, Mcminn, Meigs, Monroe, Perry, Polk, Rhea, Roane, Stewart and Trousdale in Tennessee.
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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