At the Ohio History Center museum in Columbus, a recently redesigned exhibit details the state’s UNESCO world heritage site, the Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks and Indigenous cultures in Ohio.
That includes scaled images of ancient rock art, models of Ohio’s environment centuries ago and excavated items used in Native American rituals.
But out of view are over 6,500 Native American human remains from Ohio’s removed tribes that the Ohio History Connection possesses — one of the largest such collections in the nation.
Updates to the federal Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act —known as NAGPRA — have the Ohio History Connection and tribes on a countdown to identify and decide what to do with those remains.
The nonprofit is the state’s preservation hub and runs the center. It’s actively consulting with the 45 tribes tied to the Ohio River Valley to repatriate these remains.
But Chief Glenna Wallace of the Eastern Shawnee tribe of Oklahoma said work’s been slow moving.
“Without question, this is a very delicate but crucial conversation and one that is very important to all of us,” Wallace said. “There is an urgency about it. It has been on the back burner for far too long.”
The urgency Wallace is referring to are updates to NAGPRA. This law requires federally funded museums to return Native American remains and funerary objects to the tribes from which they were taken.
The law passed in 1990. But last January, the U.S. Department of the Interior revised its regulations to streamline the repatriation process.
That’s when it gave institutions five years to consult with tribal nations and identify what’s in their inventories.
“These changes to the department's NAGPRA regulations are long overdue and will strengthen our ability to enforce the law and help tribes in the return of ancestors and sacred cultural objects," former Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Bryan Newland told ICT News last March.
Ohio History hosted last year’s Ohio Tribal Nations Conference in October. Most of the week was dedicated to consulting tribes to identify the remains and establish plans for re-burial, Wallace said.
“The executive director of OHC Megan Wood gave a very emotional and truthful acknowledgment at the Thursday night banquet that Ohio History needs to do better. And this is an area, particularly where they did not know how to proceed, and have now indicated that they will commit to greater resources,” Wallace recounted of the conference.
The size of OHC’s collection was over 7,000 last December, which they’ve been able to reduce due to repatriation efforts.
Stacia Kuceyeski, chief operations officer of Ohio History Connection, said it has three staff members to do the work. It’s not a process they want to rush, she said.
“We have a lot of remains to get through,” she said. “Our NAGPRA staff has to cross-reference what time frame the (ancestral remains are) from with the geography of where they came from, and then who would have been on that land at that time period.”
Several tribal leaders say it’s good to finally see progress on returning their remains. But they also find it difficult to navigate these new requirements.
For one, tribal nations and museums foot most of the associated costs.
Federal grants are available for consultation, documentation and repatriation — but they’re so competitive, some refer to NAGPRA as an unfunded mandate. There’s also a cap on the amount of money institutions and tribes can apply for.
For the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma, four of the five staff members dealing with NAGPRA consultations aren’t paid to do the work, according to the tribe’s historic preservation officer Logan York.
“We are now on this timeline to make sure that our ancestors are treated with respect, but we have no more funding to make sure it's done correctly,” York said.
The Trump administration hasn't indicated any changes coming to NAGPRA. In a statement to WYSO and NPR, department spokesperson Jordan Fifer said that Interior Secretary Doug Burgum looks forward to working with tribes on this and other issues.
“We will strengthen our commitment to enhancing the quality of life, promoting economic opportunities, and empowering our Tribal partners,” Fifer wrote.
Besides a lack of funding and time, none of the tribes are based within Ohio’s borders.
The U.S. government forcibly removed all Native American tribes from the state by the early 19th century. This caused historic Ohio tribes’ remains to be scattered about the country.
For example, chief of the Shawnee Tribe Ben Barnes said they have to work with 26 states for NAGPRA consultations, and only has two staff members to do it.
“There's no single NAGPRA consultation that's typical. Some can take years. Some can take months, some can take weeks. Some collections are overseas. Some are split collections, some of the ancestors were loaned out to another institution,” Barnes said.
Chief Glenna Wallace said each tribe has their own approach to repatriation. But they are all looking for the same outcome.
“We need to unite those human remains with Mother Earth. Our belief is that that spirit is not at rest, that spirit is not at ease until it goes back to Mother Earth. And that has not happened. And that's what needs to happen,” she said.
Wallace said working to re-inter these remains is a challenge, but it’s a challenge each tribe is capable of meeting.
