Kansas museum has hundreds of Native Americans remains. New grant will aid their return

The Kansas Historical Society was awarded a $100,000 grant that will support returning the remains of Native Americans in the museum’s possession to their tribes.

The U.S. Department of the Interior award announced Monday will fund a coordinator in Kansas who will focus on the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, a federal law passed in 1990 mandating the return of remains.

The law’s implementation has been slow across the country for many reasons: Missing documentation, inadequate funding and the belief held by some institutions that they are the rightful owners have complicated the process.

According to data from the National Park Service, the historical society has the remains of at least 310 Native Americans. The vast majority were from in Kansas, but the origins of some remain unknown and at least one came from Ohio.

The NAGPRA coordinator will work to classify remains that are not yet affiliated with a tribe. Nikki Klarmann, state archaeologist at the Kansas State Historical Society, said some of the unaffiliated remains can be linked to a tribe by identifying the time period they are from or a location.

The coordinator will also re-evaluate remains that the historical society received under the Unmarked Burial Sites Preservation Act, a state law that made the museum the state repository for remains. Some of the remains classified under the state act may fall under NAGPRA, Klarmann said.

Once an inventory is more complete, Klarmann and the coordinator can begin to send out notices and collaborate with tribes to get the remains returned.

Klarmann said she aims to get all the ancestors held by the historical society returned.

“It feels like those goals are being seen,” she said. “I want to make meaningful changes.”

The position will be funded for two years and Klarmann said she hopes they can hire the coordinator by October.