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The Repatriation Database Data from Nov. 29, 2023

Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians, Michigan and Indiana

A federally recognized Indian tribe with headquarters in Michigan

Institutions reported making the remains of more than 2,000 Native Americans available for return to the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians.

The tribe was also eligible to claim more than 43,200 associated funerary objects.

Institutions continue to hold the remains of at least 3,300 Native Americans taken from counties known to be of interest to the tribe.*

Where Native American remains made available for return to the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi 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
Swipe interaction icon
Note: Remains of 142 Native Americans with no location information were made available for return to the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi 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 47 institutions made Native American remains available for return to the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians.

InstitutionRemains Made Available for Return To Tribe
University of Michigan Museum of Anthropology669
U.S. Department of Justice177
Michigan State University142
Grand Valley State University113
Grand Rapids Public Museum111
Beloit College, Logan Museum of Anthropology108
Wisconsin Historical Society108
Harvard University65
University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Department of Anthropology58
Wayne State University57
University of Toledo46
Field Museum43
Cranbrook Institute of Science39
Western Michigan University, Department of Anthropology39
Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne-Archaeological Survey38
Bess Bower Dunn Museum34
Indiana Department of Natural Resources, Division of Historic Preservation and Archaeology30
University of Wisconsin, Madison, Department of Anthropology27
Ball State University, Applied Anthropology Laboratories22
Illinois State Museum13
Princeton University13
University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh13
Detroit Institute of Arts12
Besser Museum for Northeast Michigan9
Sloan Museum9
Michigan State Historic Preservation Office8
Michigan State Police8
Museum of Ojibwa Culture and Marquette Mission Park - City of St. Ignace8
Toledo Zoological Society8
Historical Society of Saginaw County, Inc.7
Denver Museum of Nature and Science5
American Museum of Natural History4
Kingman Museum, Inc.4
Michigan Department of Transportation4
University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology4
City of Saugatuck3
Indiana State Museum and Historic Sites Corporation, State of Indiana3
Kalamazoo Valley Museum3
Milwaukee Public Museum3
Evanston History Center2
MetroParks of the Toledo Area2
University of Nebraska State Museum2
Berrien County Sheriff's Office1
City of Traverse City1
Oregon State University1
S'edav Va'aki Museum1
University of Colorado Museum1

Timeline of Native American remains made available for return to the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi 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 3,300 Native Americans that were taken from counties known to be of interest to the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi 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
Indiana Univ.851
Dept. of Anthropology (674)
Glenn A. Black Lab. of Archeology (177)
Milwaukee Public Museum574
Univ. of Michigan536
Illinois State Museum284
Univ. of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign220
Ball State Univ.149
Univ. of Wisconsin, Oshkosh137
Center for American Archeology, Kampsville Archeological Center95
Wisconsin Historical Society78
Museum Division (43)
Historic Preservation Division (35)
Ohio History Connection65
Oshkosh Public Museum55
Field Museum52
Indiana State Museum and Historic Sites Corporation28
Neville Public Museum26
Cook County Forest Preserve District23
Grand Rapids Public Museum23
Lawrence Univ.22
American Museum of Natural History20
Univ. of Toledo18
Harvard Univ.15
Wayne State Univ.14
Michigan State Historic Preservation Office13
Purdue Univ.13
Cranbrook Institute of Science11
Tippecanoe County Historical Association8
Filson Historical Society7
Indiana State Univ.6
Univ. of Notre Dame6
Kenosha Public Museum5
Univ. of Pennsylvania5
Univ. of Wisconsin, Milwaukee5
Elgin Public Museum3
San Bernardino County Museum3
Dept. of Defense3
Univ. of Louisville3
Alma College2
Minnesota Indian Affairs Council2
The History Museum2
Washington County Historical Society2
Cleveland Museum of Natural History1
Henry County Historical Society1
Miami County Museum1
Mutter Museum, College of Physicians of Philadelphia1
New York Univ.1
Putnam Museum1
Univ. of Nebraska State Museum1
Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville1
Counties of interest used in estimate include: Brown, Cook, Grundy, Kane, La Salle, Lake, Mchenry, Will and Winnebago in Illinois. Allen, Cass, Clark, Dubois, Elkhart, Fulton, Harrison, Henry, Jasper, Kosciusko, La Porte, Lagrange, Lake, Laporte, Marshall, Miami, Noble, Porter, Pulaski, Spencer, St. Joseph, Starke, Steuben, Tippecanoe, Wabash, White and Whitley in Indiana. Allegan, Alpena, Barry, Berrien, Branch, Calhoun, Cass, Delta, Emmet, Genesee, Grand Traverse, Hillsdale, Huron, Ingham, Ionia, Jackson, Kalamazoo, Kent, Lapeer, Lenawee, Livingston, Mackinac, Macomb, Mecosta, Midland, Missaukee, Monroe, Montcalm, Muskegon, Newaygo, Oakland, Oceana, Ottawa, Saginaw, Sanilac, Shiawassee, St. Clair, St. Joseph, Tuscola, Van Buren, Washtenaw and Wayne in Michigan. Lucas, Madison and Williams in Ohio. Brown, Calumet, Crawford, Dodge, Door, Fond Du Lac, Forest, Grant, Green Lake, Jefferson, Kenosha, Manitowoc, Marathon, Milwaukee, Oneida, Pierce, Racine, Rock, Sawyer, Sheboygan, Walworth, Washington, 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