Feds Return 984 Looted Cherokee Burial Items to Three Tribes
Published Date: 4/18/2025
Notice
Summary
The Bureau of Indian Affairs plans to return 984 cultural items taken without permission from a Cherokee burial site in North Carolina back to the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, Cherokee Nation, and United Keetoowah Band. This repatriation will start on or after May 19, 2025, honoring Native American heritage and correcting past wrongs. No money changes hands, but this is a big step for respect and cultural healing.
Analyzed Economic Effects
3 provisions identified: 3 benefits, 0 costs, 0 mixed.
Return of 984 Cherokee Cultural Items
The Bureau of Indian Affairs intends to return 984 cultural items (including 957 ceramic vessel fragments and other stone and faunal objects) removed in 1935–1936 from a burial site in the Qualla Boundary, North Carolina, to the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, the Cherokee Nation, and the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians in Oklahoma. The items are identified as unassociated funerary objects with cultural affiliation to those Tribes. No money will exchange hands as part of this repatriation.
Repatriation Earliest Date Set
The repatriation may occur on or after May 19, 2025. That date is the earliest the BIA will carry out the transfer of the cultural items described in this notice.
How Others Can Request Repatriation
Other lineal descendants, Indian Tribes, or Native Hawaiian organizations not named may submit written requests for repatriation to the Bureau of Indian Affairs' authorized representative (Tamara Billie, NAGPRA Manager) and must show by a preponderance of the evidence that they are lineal descendants or culturally affiliated. The notice says competing requests will be resolved by the BIA and that requests for joint repatriation are treated as a single request; repatriation may still occur on or after May 19, 2025.
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