Native American remains return to mainland US in repatriation first

More than 150 years after they were taken, the University has returned the skulls of six people from the Muscogee Nation during a formal ceremony in Edinburgh on Friday 23 January.

The Muscogee (Creek) Nation is a self-governed Native American Tribal Nation who are descendants of the Mississippian culture (800 to 1600 CE).

The Nation are known for maize agriculture, earthen mound building, and extensive trade networks, that spanned the Mississippi River and its tributaries, and were the dominant culture and people of the Southeastern territory before European contact in 1539.        

The tribe is now based in Oklahoma after being forcibly displaced in events, known as the ‘Trail of Tears’, following the ‘Indian Removal Act’ in 1830.

The Muscogee Nation now includes approximately 103,000 people and is the 4th largest federally recognized tribe in the US.

Once the remains are returned, the Nation's Department of Culture and Humanities will formally repatriate them to the tribe's original homelands in the Southeastern United States.

For more details on this, please see full article here: https://www.ed.ac.uk/news/native-american-remains-return-to-mainland-us-in-repatriation-first