Alabama Uni Returns Cave-Found Native Remains to Tribes
Published Date: 3/17/2025
Notice
Summary
The University of Alabama at Birmingham has finished checking its collection and found Native American human remains and related items from a cave in Alabama. These remains and objects are linked to local Native tribes and can be returned starting April 16, 2025. This means the university is ready to give these important cultural items back to the rightful communities, with no costs or risks involved.
Analyzed Economic Effects
4 provisions identified: 4 benefits, 0 costs, 0 mixed.
Repatriation available to named tribes
The University of Alabama at Birmingham has identified a cultural affiliation between recovered remains and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians; Poarch Band of Creek Indians; Seminole Tribe of Florida; The Chickasaw Nation; and The Muscogee (Creek) Nation. Those tribes may submit written requests for repatriation, and repatriation may occur on or after April 16, 2025.
Who may request repatriation
Written repatriation requests may be sent by any one or more of the Indian Tribes named in this notice, or by any lineal descendant or other tribe that shows by a preponderance of the evidence a cultural affiliation. If competing requests are received, the University of Alabama at Birmingham must determine the most appropriate requestor; joint requests are treated as a single request.
Inventory found one Native individual and two object lots
UAB's inventory identified the physical remains of at least one Native American individual and two lots of associated funerary objects: one lot of nonhuman faunal remains (beaver, unidentified bird, deer, rabbit, raccoon, rodent, turkey, and turtle) and one lot of unmodified limestone. The collection came from Lewis Bluff Cave (1Mg108) in Morgan County, Alabama, and was donated to UAB in 1981.
No hazardous substances reported
The notice states there is no record that potentially hazardous substances were used to treat the human remains or the funerary objects. This information is part of the inventory record and may affect handling and transfer.
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