Oklahoma’s largest museum of natural history is also one of the largest holders of the remains of Native Americans in the country.

Now, 25 years after passage of law requiring remains be returned to families, the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History on the University of Oklahoma campus is hiring a coordinator to oversee repatriation efforts under the Native Graves and Repatriation Act.

The museum’s holdings represent the 18th largest collection of unrepatriated remains in the nation, with more than 3,800 Native American remains and more than 115,500 associated funerary objects, according to ProPublica .

This story was reported by Gaylord News , a Washington reporting project of the Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Oklahoma.

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.”

Visitors to the Sam Noble museum 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.

Levine said the exhibit was built with support from tribal nations.

“The idea of an antagonist 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 the Caddo Nation, Osage Nation, Wichita and Affiliated Tribes, Chickasaw Nation, Choctaw Nation and Muscogee Nation. Levine said the museum continues to work closely with tribal nations.

Between 2011 and 2024, the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma conducted four repatriations from the museum. These included more than two dozen ancestors and more than 200 associated funerary objects.

“The Sam Noble staff have been great to work with, always willing to answer questions promptly and efficiently. They’ve been very respectful and professional when ancestors are physically returned to Choctaw Nation, and that is very much appreciated,” said Ian Thompson, tribal historic preservation officer at the Choctaw Nation.

While the museum works to take inventory and repatriate the cultural items and ancestors in its collection dating back several decades, the museum’s staff began to emphasize the importance of NAGPRA compliance, both in letter and in spirit, during the mid-2010’s.

“Those efforts, which included building important relationships with National Park Service staff, applying for NAGPRA-compliance grants, requesting expert consultants and raising NAGPRA awareness on campus, laid the foundation for the university’s maturing NAGPRA compliance program,” said Tana Fitzpatrick, OU’s associate vice president for tribal relations. “NAGPRA compliance and respecting tribal relationships is a priority for the university.”

‘Still a great deal of work to do’

Stowed away and hidden from the public, the fifth floor of Sam Noble contains the dimly lit shelves that hold artifacts and remains accumulated over years of research. Some items sit neatly preserved, awaiting study or display, while others are miscategorized, collecting dust in archival boxes. In these silent corridors, history lingers.

The inventories in these archival collections can sometimes still be found in their original brown paper sacks, dating all the way back to the 1930s. This is a testament to the Works Progress Administration, which sometimes performed archaeological digs, excavating burials and granting museums possession of these goods, but not for the purpose of exhibition.

The Sam Noble museum has the largest archaeological collection in the state of Oklahoma. The museum houses millions of artifacts and is actively engaged in repatriation work.

“In 2024 alone, we prepared a total of 751 sets of ancestral remains and 1,588 funerary objects for repatriation. By this measure, we are probably among the most active NAGPRA programs in the country,” Levine said. “There is still a great deal of work to do, but we are on the right track.”

Currently, Levine ensures there is regular contact with tribal representatives and an open line of contact. In 2023, the OU provost office appointed an independent NAGPRA oversight committee, representing scholars in the fields of anthropology, archaeology, art history and Indigenous law to provide advice and recommendations to the university on NAGPRA-related matters. This decision was made in conjunction with a $16,765 grant of American Rescue Plan Act funds to support repatriation work at the museum.

“Currently, the oversight committee is, one, developing a central NAGPRA communication line, two, instituting a survey to inventory the university’s collections and three, dedicating hours of study to ensure it can serve as a resource to the university in implementing the new NAGPRA regulations, among other priorities,” Fitzpatrick said. “The museum’s standard of care for ancestral remains and establishing tribal relationships has been, and continues to be, a matter of priority.”

Because OU has historically made necessary efforts to comply with NAGPRA, the slight reorganization of this program will not look much different from the outside — it is a constant and ongoing process. With a delegated coordinator, the project will be expedited and given necessary attention.

“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,” Thompson said.