By Kylie Caldwell, Gaylord News
Many Native American tribes view remains and sacred objects as living entities, not artifacts–and museums have the opportunity to right historical wrongs.
Oklahoma’s largest museum of natural history holds one of the most substantial inventories of Native American cultural items and funerary objects in the country.
Since 1990, there have been federal protections in place for Native American human remains, funerary objects, sacred objects and objects of cultural patrimony. By enacting the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, Congress recognized that human remains of any ancestry “must at all times be treated with dignity and respect.”
It all begins with inventory and documentation, requiring initiating meaningful consultation with tribes, understanding that tribal nations have the authority to define what belongs to them–not the institutions. Documentation will follow with determinations and ongoing compliance to respect and accommodate specific tribal protocols, which could include transportation rituals, cleansing ceremonies or burial rites. Some museums still drag their feet.
What happens when history is stolen, and what does it take to return it? The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act compliance is more than a legal process, it’s a sacred duty.
Beyond the OU Exhibit: Sam Noble Museum’s New Role Focuses on Justice, Not Display
Stowed away and hidden from the public, the fifth floor of the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History at OU holds the dimly lit shelves that hold all the related artifacts and remains accumulated over years of research. Some items sit neatly preserved, awaiting study or display, while others remain miscategorized, collecting dust in archival boxes. In these silent corridors, history lingers.
The inventory in these archival collections can sometimes still be found in a brown paper sack, dating all the way back to 1930s Works Progress Administration America. A fragile and worn testament to statewide public works during this time that included mitigating archaeology and excavating burials. From ancestral village to sacred shore, museums were also granted possession of these goods, but not for the purpose of exhibition.
One State, Many Nations: The University of Oklahoma and NAGPRA
Now, 35 years after passage of law requiring remains be returned to families, the Sam Noble Museum on the OU campus is hiring a coordinator to oversee repatriation efforts of Native American remains it holds under the Native Graves and Repatriation Act.
The museum houses the 18th largest inventory of unrepatriated remains in the nation with over 3,800 Native American remains and more than 115,500 associated funerary objects, according to ProPublica.
Visitors to Sam Noble will find only a fraction of its Native American collection in the McCasland Foundation Hall of the People of Oklahoma, according to Marc Levine, associate curator of Archaeology at Sam Noble and associate professor in the OU Department of Anthropology.
“The idea of an antagonistic or competitive relationship between the museum and the tribes does not exist,” Levine said, “It is more so collaborative.”
Since the inception of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, the museum has repatriated artifacts to Caddo Nation, Osage Nation, Wichita and Affiliated Tribes, Chickasaw Nation, Choctaw Nation, Muscogee (Creek) Nation and continues to work closely with other tribes.
A standard of care at OU history museum
While the museum’s efforts to take inventory and repatriate cultural items and ancestors in its possession dates back to its genesis, the museum staff began to emphasize the importance of repatriation compliance, both in letter and in spirit, in the mid-2010’s.
Tana Fitzpatrick, OU’s associate vice president for tribal relations, said that these efforts have included building important relationships with National Park Service staff and applying for compliance related grants.
“The museum’s standard of care for ancestral remains and establishing tribal relationships has been, and continues to be, a matter of priority,” she added.
Levine said OU is probably among the most active NAGPRA programs in the country, by the measure of repatriating 751 sets of ancestral remains and 1,588 funerary objects in just 2024. “There is still a great deal of work to do, but we are on the right track,” he added.
Exchanges of progress and promise
Between 2011 and 2024, the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma conducted four repatriations from the OU museum, more than two dozen ancestors and more than 200 associated funerary objects.
“When family members laid their loved ones to rest, they intended for them to stay at rest forever, not get dug up and accessioned into a collection,” said Thompson.
Kylie Caldwell is a member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma.
Gaylord News is a reporting project of the Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication. For more stories by Gaylord News go to GaylordNews.net
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