The Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska has filed an appeal with the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, seeking to compel the U.S. Army to repatriate the remains of two Winnebago boys, Samuel Gilbert and Edward Hensley, who died at Carlisle Indian Industrial School.

The Department of Justice has requested a 10-day extension to respond to a lawsuit that will likely determine whether or not the United States Office of Army Cemeteries is required to follow a process designed by federal law in returning the human remains of nearly 200 Native children. 

The remains of 11 Native American children who died more than a century ago at a government-run Indian boarding school in Pennsylvania will be going home to their closest living relatives this September, the U.S. Office of Army Cemeteries announced in a federal notice on April 9.

PORTLAND, Ore.—The souls of more than 300 Alaska Native people who died throughout the 20th century at a psychiatric hospital more than 1,700 miles from their homes were released on their journey into the afterlife this month.

Alaska Native relatives and allies, seated around a circle in an all-day ceremony on March 9, donned regalia, prayed, sang songs, shared stories, and danced in honor of their ancestors who never came home.

Tlingit elder Bob Sam, 70, a lifelong repatriation expert and cemetery caretaker in Alaska, led the ceremony. Behind him stood a table full of children’s toys: teddy bears, marbles, and games were offered up as gifts for the young departed souls.

“In Alaska, as living people, we suffer racism, prejudice, hatred,” Sam told the attendees. “But many people don't know that our dead suffer more. Our dead are neglected and forgotten people."

Read the story at Native News Online.

More than 90 Native American artifacts—including pieces of pottery, tools and a flint knifepoint believed to be about 3,000 years old—have been found on property owned by Lehigh in Upper Saucon Township. The artifacts will be returned to Delaware Nation, a sovereign, federally recognized nation of Lenape people whose traditional homelands encompass the Lehigh Valley, including what is today Lehigh’s campus.

U.S. Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i), Chair of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, made an impassioned plea on the Senate floor on Thursday afternoon to demand institutions, including colleges and museums, to stop avoiding their responsibilities under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990 (NAGPRA).

The American Museum of Natural History in New York City will close two of its exhibition halls that showcase “severely outdated” representations of Native Americans, the museum’s president, Sean Decatur, wrote today in an internal email to staff.

An Alaska Native museum in the state’s Kodiak Archipelago is using a nearly $100,000 federal grant to build a private online database to help unite local tribes with their ancestors.

As new federal law requirements went live last week, museums and institutions holding Native American human remains and artifacts across the country scrambled to understand and implement new changes. Native advocates say it's just the beginning. 

The Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska filed a lawsuit on Wednesday against the United States Army, seeking the return of the remains of two children who died and were buried at the US government’s flagship Indian boarding school more than 120 years ago.

The Coalition of Large Tribes, an organization representing more than 50 tribes with reservations of 100,000 acres or more, signed on to the Navajo Nation’s request for consultation before NASA sends human remains to the moon.

SHAWNEE, Oklahoma — This past week, tribal leaders, museum employees, academics, government officials, and repatriation practitioners gathered together in Shawnee, Oklahoma to discuss returning Indigenous human remains and burial objects back to their rightful tribal nations.

Archaeologist Dorothy Lippert (Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma) has been named the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History’s new repatriation program manager. Lippert is a leading figure in the field of Indigenou archaeology. She is the first woman and first Native American to hold this position. 

Michelle Calhoun was shopping in a thrift store in North Fort Myers, Florida and noticed a human skull in the Halloween section on Saturday, November 4, 2023.

A New York museum that tribal representatives call one of the worst offenders of federal repatriation law has announced new policies for removing human remains from display cases and said it plans to double down on repatriation efforts for the more than 12,000 individuals it holds in its facility.

Two bills signed by California Governor Gavin Newsom on Tuesday, October 10, 2023, will hold California university systems accountable for the proper repatriation of Native American human remains and other cultural items to the appropriate Native American tribes.

Carlisle, Penn. — Tribal nations seeking the return of their children buried at what was once the nation’s flagship Indigenous assimilation institution, the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, may have a new playbook to follow—one that involves the U.S. Army’s cooperation.