Mississippi Repatriates Remains and Objects to the Chickasaw Nation

JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI—Mississippi Today reports that 95 sets of human remains and some 1,500 funerary objects that had been stored at the Mississippi Department of Archives and History (MDAH) have been repatriated to the Chickasaw Nation under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), which was passed in 1990 and updated in 2023. MDAH received grants from the National Park Service in 2018 that the institution used to hire staff to comply with the law, explained MDAH archaeologist Cindy Carter-Davis. The Chickasaw Nation was one of the groups of peoples forced to leave their lands in the Southeast and move to Oklahoma under the Indian Removal Act of 1830. As a result, their ancestral graves were left vulnerable to destruction. Amber Hood, director of Historic Preservation and Repatriation for the Chickasaw Nation, said that the funerary objects and human remains will be reburied at their original sites or as close to them as possible. “Our people believe there is a spiritual disturbance that occurs when the remains are dug up and put on display, and slowly but surely we are doing what we can to right that wrong and return our family members to continue their spiritual journey in peace,” Hood said. To read about archaeological evidence of resilience in the Chickasaw homeland, go to "Letter from the American Southeast: Spartans of the Lower Mississippi."