Thread by @marymhudetz

Today, @propublica is launching The Repatriation Project.

Our first pieces look at the U.S. institutions/agencies that hold hundreds–in some cases thousands–of ancestral remains & belongings from Indigenous gravesites propublica.org/article/repatr…

The history behind how hundreds of institutions took from ancestral burial sites is a deeply sensitive and painful one for many Native people. Especially those who have worked to reclaim ancestors under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA).

30 years after NAGPRA’s passage, U.S. institutions and the government collectively still hold the remains of tens of thousands of Native Americans.

. @UCBerkeley and @Interior -- the very agency tasked with administering and enforcing NAGPRA– are among the institutions/agencies that hold the most. But they are far from alone.

(Interior said it complies with its legal obligations. UC Berkeley's statement is below)

To understand just how massive this issue is, you can use this interactive tool (by @ashnguuu and @asuozzo) to look up where Native American remains were taken from and which institutions still report having them
projects.propublica.org/repatriation-n…

Let us know if you spot anything in the data that you know more about and would like to share. You can email our team working on this project over the coming months at [e-mail]