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The Repatriation Database Data from Nov. 29, 2023

White Earth Band of Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, Minnesota

A federally recognized Indian tribe, constituent band with headquarters in Minnesota

Institutions reported making the remains of more than 3,100 Native Americans available for return to the White Earth Band of Minnesota Chippewa Tribe.

The band was also eligible to claim more than 12,700 associated funerary objects.

Institutions continue to hold the remains of at least 3,000 Native Americans taken from counties known to be of interest to the band.*

Where Native American remains made available for return to the White Earth Band of Minnesota Chippewa Tribe were taken from

Each county is a peak
Height is amount of remains taken from county and made available by institutions for return to band
No remains taken from these counties made available for return to band
Institution that made remains available for return
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Note: Remains of two Native Americans with no location information were made available for return to the White Earth Band of Minnesota Chippewa Tribe.
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 37 institutions made Native American remains available for return to the White Earth Band of Minnesota Chippewa Tribe.

InstitutionRemains Made Available for Return To Band
Minnesota Indian Affairs Council1,380
University of Michigan Museum of Anthropology628
Michigan State University196
Wisconsin Historical Society193
Grand Valley State University113
Beloit College, Logan Museum of Anthropology108
Harvard University98
University of Iowa, Office of the State Archaeologist60
University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Department of Anthropology58
University of Wisconsin, Madison, Department of Anthropology52
Marshall University38
Bess Bower Dunn Museum34
Historical Society of Saginaw County, Inc.20
Milwaukee Public Museum15
Michigan State Historic Preservation Office14
University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh13
Princeton University12
Sloan Museum9
Michigan History Center8
Michigan State Police8
Museum of Ojibwa Culture and Marquette Mission Park - City of St. Ignace8
Toledo Zoological Society8
Coe College7
American Museum of Natural History5
Michigan Department of Transportation4
Denver Museum of Nature and Science2
Detroit Institute of Arts2
MetroParks of the Toledo Area2
University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology2
Berrien County Sheriff's Office1
City of Traverse City1
Illinois State Museum1
Indiana State Museum and Historic Sites Corporation, State of Indiana1
Minnesota Historical Society1
Rhinelander High School1
Sheboygan County Historical Museum1
U.S. Department of the Interior1

Timeline of Native American remains made available for return to the White Earth Band of Minnesota Chippewa Tribe

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 3,000 Native Americans that were taken from counties known to be of interest to the White Earth Band of Minnesota Chippewa Tribe.

These are estimates calculated using remains not made available for return from counties that the band has previously been eligible to claim remains from, as well as counties that the band has indicated interest in to the federal government. They are not comprehensive figures. The band 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 Band
Milwaukee Public Museum1,215
Univ. of Michigan562
Illinois State Museum173
Univ. of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign135
Univ. of Wisconsin, Oshkosh133
Wisconsin Historical Society126
Museum Division (88)
Historic Preservation Division (38)
West Virginia Division of Culture and History104
Harvard Univ.93
Ohio History Connection64
Indiana Univ.58
Dept. of Anthropology (52)
Glenn A. Black Lab. of Archeology (6)
Oshkosh Public Museum55
Center for American Archeology, Kampsville Archeological Center45
Virginia Dept. of Historic Resources43
Univ. of Minnesota, Duluth38
Grand Rapids Public Museum33
Minnesota Indian Affairs Council32
Neville Public Museum26
Lawrence Univ.22
Dept. of the Interior18
Sherburne National Wildlife Refuge (15)
Voyageurs NP (3)
Univ. of Toledo15
Michigan State Historic Preservation Office14
Wayne State Univ.14
Cranbrook Institute of Science11
Ball State Univ.6
Field Museum5
Kenosha Public Museum5
Univ. of Pennsylvania4
Elgin Public Museum3
Dept. of Defense3
Univ. of Wisconsin, Milwaukee3
Alma College2
Brigham Young Univ.2
Minnesota Historical Society2
Washington County Historical Society2
American Museum of Natural History1
Carnegie Museum of Natural History1
Louisiana State Exhibit Museum1
Mutter Museum, College of Physicians of Philadelphia1
Putnam Museum1
Rochester Museum and Science Center1
Springfield Science Museum1
Univ. of Akron1
Univ. of Iowa1
Univ. of Nebraska State Museum1
Univ. of Notre Dame1
Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville1
Counties of interest used in estimate include: Cass in Iowa. Hancock, Jo Daviess, Kane, La Salle, Lake, Mchenry and Winnebago in Illinois. Delaware, Dubois and La Porte in Indiana. Alcona, Allegan, Alpena, Antrim, Arenac, Baraga, Barry, Bay, Berrien, Branch, Calhoun, Cass, Charlevoix, Cheboygan, Chippewa, Clinton, Delta, Dickinson, Emmet, Genesee, Gladwin, Gogebic, Grand Traverse, Gratiot, Hillsdale, Houghton, Huron, Ingham, Ionia, Iosco, Iron, Isabella, Jackson, Kalamazoo, Kent, Keweenaw, Lake, Lapeer, Leelanau, Lenawee, Livingston, Mackinac, Macomb, Marquette, Mecosta, Menominee, Midland, Missaukee, Monroe, Montcalm, Montmorency, Muskegon, Newaygo, Oakland, Oceana, Ogemaw, Ontonagon, Otsego, Ottawa, Roscommon, Saginaw, Sanilac, Shiawassee, St. Clair, Tuscola, Van Buren, Washtenaw, Wayne and Wexford in Michigan. Aitkin, Anoka, Becker, Beltrami, Benton, Big Stone, Blue Earth, Brown, Carlton, Carver, Cass, Chippewa, Chisago, Clay, Clearwater, Crow Wing, Dakota, Douglas, Freeborn, Hennepin, Hubbard, Isanti, Itasca, Kanabec, Kandiyohi, Kittson, Koochiching, Lake, Lincoln, Mahnomen, Marshall, Meeker, Mille Lacs, Morrison, Murray, Nicollet, Norman, Otter Tail, Pine, Polk, Pope, Ramsey, Red Lake, Sherburne, St. Louis, Stearns, Todd, Traverse, Wabasha, Wadena, Washington, Watonwan, Wilkin, Winona, Wright and Yellow Medicine in Minnesota. Lucas and Madison in Ohio. Tazewell in Virginia. Ashland, Barron, Bayfield, Brown, Burnett, Chippewa, Clark, Crawford, Dodge, Door, Douglas, Dunn, Eau Claire, Florence, Fond Du Lac, Forest, Grant, Green Lake, Iowa, Iron, Jefferson, Kenosha, Langlade, Lincoln, Marathon, Marinette, Menominee, Milwaukee, Oconto, Oneida, Pierce, Polk, Portage, Price, Racine, Richland, Rock, Rusk, Sawyer, Shawano, Sheboygan, St. Croix, Taylor, Vilas, Walworth, Washburn, Washington, Waukesha, Winnebago and Wood 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