About half of the remains of more than 210,000 Native Americans have yet to be returned.
Ten institutions hold about half of the reported Native Americans remains that have not been made available for return to tribes. The list includes some of the country’s most prestigious universities, as well as federal agencies whose development projects disturbed Native American burials, and state museums whose archaeology and anthropology programs originated with the excavation of key Native American sites and mounds.
The University of California, Berkeley still has the remains of at least 4,900 Native Americans that it has not made available for return.
Harvard University still has the remains of at least 5,600 Native Americans.
The American Museum of Natural History still has the remains of at least 1,800 Native Americans.
The Department of the Interior still has the remains of at least 3,600 Native Americans.
Tribes have struggled to reclaim them in part because of a lack of federal funding for repatriation and because institutions face little to no consequences for violating the law or dragging their feet.
