University of Massachusetts to return ancestors taken in Florida

Thursday, March 7, 2013  

The University of Massachusetts is planning to repatriate 64 ancestral remains that were removed from a site in Florida in 1925.

The ancestors will be repatriated to the Muscogee Nation, the Seminole Tribe and the Seminole Nation, according to a notice that was published in the Federal Register last December. The process took several years to complete.

"Multiple lines of evidence—guided by tribal consultations—including geographic, oral tradition, archaeological, linguistic, historical, and aboriginal land claims, demonstrate a shared group identity between these human remains and the modern-day tribes of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, Oklahoma; Seminole Tribe of Florida; and The Seminole Nation of Oklahoma," the notice stated.

Get the Story:
UMass returns Native American remains after 88 years (The Daily Collegian 3/7)

Federal Register Notice:
Notice of Inventory Completion: Department of Anthropology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA (December 18, 2012)