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The Repatriation Database Data from Nov. 29, 2023

Stockbridge Munsee Community, Wisconsin

A federally recognized Indian tribe with headquarters in Wisconsin

Institutions reported making the remains of more than 2,300 Native Americans available for return to the Stockbridge Munsee Community.

The tribe was also eligible to claim more than 43,600 associated funerary objects.

Institutions continue to hold the remains of at least 1,300 Native Americans taken from counties known to be of interest to the tribe.*

Where Native American remains made available for return to the Stockbridge Munsee Community 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 22 Native Americans with no location information were made available for return to the Stockbridge Munsee Community.
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 50 institutions made Native American remains available for return to the Stockbridge Munsee Community.

InstitutionRemains Made Available for Return To Tribe
West Virginia Division of Culture and History1,031
New York State Museum213
New Jersey State Museum208
American Museum of Natural History191
University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Department of Anthropology97
Springfield Science Museum84
Harvard University72
State Museum of Pennsylvania58
University of Wisconsin, Madison, Department of Anthropology51
U.S. Department of the Interior48
Michigan State University40
Field Museum38
Marshall University38
SUNY, University at Albany30
Seton Hall University26
Wisconsin Historical Society24
University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology11
University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Department of Anthropology10
University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh10
Rochester Museum and Science Center9
Temple University, Department of Anthropology9
SUNY, New Paltz8
Amherst College, Beneski Museum of Natural History6
Fort Ticonderoga6
Mutter Museum, College of Physicians of Philadelphia6
University of Iowa, Office of the State Archaeologist6
Museum of Ojibwa Culture and Marquette Mission Park - City of St. Ignace5
Princeton University5
Robert S. Peabody Institute of Archaeology, Phillips Academy5
Vassar College5
Beloit College, Logan Museum of Anthropology4
Staten Island Institute of Arts and Sciences4
University of California, Berkeley4
Brooklyn Children's Museum3
Gilcrease Museum3
Warren County Cultural and Heritage Commission, Shippen Manor3
Berkshire Museum2
Bruce Museum2
Historic Hugeuenot Street2
Michigan State Police2
Moravian Historical Society2
Carnegie Museum of Natural History1
City of Traverse City1
Lambertville Historical Society1
Morris Museum1
Mount Holyoke College Art Museum1
New York University, College of Dentistry1
Sandusky Library, Follett House Museum1
Sheboygan County Historical Museum1
Wistariahurst Museum1

Timeline of Native American remains made available for return to the Stockbridge Munsee Community

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 1,300 Native Americans that were taken from counties known to be of interest to the Stockbridge Munsee Community.

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
Milwaukee Public Museum253
Ball State Univ.159
Ohio History Connection151
Univ. of Wisconsin, Oshkosh134
Univ. of Toledo110
West Virginia Division of Culture and History106
American Museum of Natural History73
Cleveland Museum of Natural History69
Oshkosh Public Museum46
Virginia Dept. of Historic Resources43
Wisconsin Historical Society43
Museum Division (29)
Historic Preservation Division (14)
Springfield Science Museum25
Grand Rapids Public Museum22
State Museum of Pennsylvania22
Indiana State Museum and Historic Sites Corporation18
Indiana Univ.15
Dept. of Anthropology (9)
Glenn A. Black Lab. of Archeology (6)
Yale Univ.14
Heidelberg Univ.13
Nassau County Dept. of Parks and Recreation10
New York State Museum8
Harvard Univ.7
Univ. of Pennsylvania7
Rochester Museum and Science Center5
Carnegie Museum of Natural History4
New York Univ.4
Univ. of Kansas4
Henry County Historical Society3
Indiana State Univ.3
Univ. of Michigan3
Cleveland State Univ.2
Temple Univ.2
Field Museum1
Gilcrease Museum1
Illinois State Museum1
Louisiana State Exhibit Museum1
Michigan State Historic Preservation Office1
Newark Museum1
Putnam Museum1
Univ. of Akron1
Univ. of Louisville1
Univ. of Nebraska State Museum1
Univ. of Notre Dame1
Wayne State Univ.1
Worcester Historical Museum1
Counties of interest used in estimate include: Litchfield in Connecticut. Delaware, Harrison, Henry, La Porte and Madison in Indiana. Leavenworth in Kansas. Berkshire, Franklin, Hampden, Hampshire and Worcester in Massachusetts. Emmet, Jackson, Kalamazoo, Mackinac and Monroe in Michigan. Erie, Madison and Tuscarawas in Ohio. Bucks, Chester, Dauphin, Delaware, Lawrence, Luzerne, Monroe, Philadelphia, Pike, Susquehanna and Wyoming in Pennsylvania. Tazewell in Virginia. Addison, Bennington and Rutland in Vermont. Calumet, Grant, Menominee, Outagamie, Richland, Shawano, Sheboygan 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