Current Projects

Starting in the early 1990s, History Nebraska began repatriating human remains and funerary objects to descendant Native American groups. The long-term project has required decades of work by Native historians, attorneys, physical anthropologists, collections specialists, archeologists and technicians with skills in identifying materials such as plant remains, animal bones, textiles, and ceramics. These efforts were required to determine which remains belonged to which tribes and which artifacts were funerary objects.

By 2010, nearly all remains affiliated with specific tribes were returned — over 700 individuals. However, for over 600 Native American remains, the information was lacking to make a tribal determination and the remains continued to sit on our shelves, classified as unaffiliated.

Beginning in 2017, History Nebraska initiated a consultation with 37 tribes from seven states to find a solution to this problem. These tribes represent all groups with some connection to what is now Nebraska. Through negotiation, we reached a decision jointly repatriating these unaffiliated remains with all tribes through the concept of shared group identity. About one-third of these were laid to rest in southeast Nebraska in the summer of 2019. The remainder are scheduled for reburial in central Nebraska. Both reburial locations are private.

The State Archeology Office still deals with human remains, but only in the event of inadvertent discovery or at the request of law enforcement for forensic cases. The same laws apply in these cases and any Native American remains are repatriated. In the case of non-Native American remains, the relevant county attorney sees that bones are reburied if descendants cannot be found.