Kentucky institutions begin to make progress repatriating Native American remains

Last year, the Filson Historical Society hired Kelly Hyberger under a two-year grant to repatriate the human remains of Native Americans that they kept in storage. At that time, Filson officials knew they had the remains of at least two individuals who, by law, needed to be repatriated to their original tribes. They were people who had been removed from their graves and donated or sold to an institution without any consent from their descendants.

One of Hyberger’s first actions was searching through the society’s archives, looking for any clues about the human remains to identify where they originally were buried and to which tribe they belonged.

“It's really common in most, if not all institutions, to have some level of backlog,” Hyberger said. “So as you start going through that material, you find all kinds of things that you don't expect to find.”

After scouring the archives, Hyberger didn’t just find that information — she also uncovered the remains of at least 18 more people who must be repatriated. According to her, this is not an uncommon phenomenon for institutions.