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The Repatriation Database Data from Nov. 29, 2023

Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas

A federally recognized Indian tribe with headquarters in Texas

Institutions reported making the remains of more than 500 Native Americans available for return to the Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas.

The tribe was also eligible to claim more than 6,600 associated funerary objects.

Institutions continue to hold the remains of at least 1,900 Native Americans taken from counties known to be of interest to the tribe.*

Where Native American remains made available for return to the Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas 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 three Native Americans with no location information were made available for return to the Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas.
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 22 institutions made Native American remains available for return to the Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas.

InstitutionRemains Made Available for Return To Tribe
University of Michigan Museum of Anthropology172
Grand Valley State University113
Michigan State University46
Field Museum42
Kansas State University28
Historical Society of Saginaw County, Inc.19
University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Department of Anthropology18
Beloit College, Logan Museum of Anthropology13
University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh13
Princeton University12
Museum of Ojibwa Culture and Marquette Mission Park - City of St. Ignace8
U.S. Department of the Interior7
Denver Museum of Nature and Science5
Michigan State Historic Preservation Office5
Detroit Institute of Arts2
MetroParks of the Toledo Area2
American Museum of Natural History1
City of Traverse City1
Harvard University1
Illinois State Museum1
Indiana State Museum and Historic Sites Corporation, State of Indiana1
University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology1

Timeline of Native American remains made available for return to the Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas

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 1,900 Native Americans that were taken from counties known to be of interest to the Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas.

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 Michigan481
Milwaukee Public Museum403
Univ. of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign196
Illinois State Museum173
Harvard Univ.141
Univ. of Wisconsin, Oshkosh130
Center for American Archeology, Kampsville Archeological Center95
Ohio History Connection64
Indiana Univ.57
Dept. of Anthropology (51)
Glenn A. Black Lab. of Archeology (6)
Oshkosh Public Museum55
Wisconsin Historical Society42
Museum Division (41)
Historic Preservation Division (1)
Grand Rapids Public Museum21
Univ. of Toledo15
Wayne State Univ.14
Lawrence Univ.11
Michigan State Historic Preservation Office11
Sul Ross State Univ.10
Neville Public Museum7
Kenosha Public Museum5
Witte Museum5
Kansas State Historical Society4
Univ. of Kansas4
Univ. of Pennsylvania4
American Museum of Natural History3
Hastings Museum3
Nassau County Dept. of Parks and Recreation3
New York Univ.3
Alma College2
Putnam Museum1
Univ. of Notre Dame1
Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville1
Univ. of Texas at Austin1
Univ. of Wisconsin, Milwaukee1
Counties of interest used in estimate include: Brown, Grundy and La Salle in Illinois. Dubois and La Porte in Indiana. Doniphan in Kansas. Allegan, Bay, Berrien, Emmet, Ionia, Kalamazoo, Kent, Mackinac, Macomb, Mecosta, Missaukee, Monroe, Newaygo, Oceana, Ottawa, Saginaw and Wayne in Michigan. Lucas and Madison in Ohio. Brewster and Maverick in Texas. Brown, Grant, Green Lake, Jefferson, Kenosha, Milwaukee, Rock, Waukesha and Winnebago in Wisconsin.
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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