Harvard Peabody Museum Still Holds 46 Percent of Native American Ancestors, New Data Shows

The Harvard Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology still holds 46 percent of the Native American ancestors in its collections, according to newly released data, falling short of a 2022 pledge to complete the repatriation of all ancestors and their associated funerary belongings within three years.

The data, published Monday on the museum’s website, shows that as of Dec. 31, 2025, the Peabody has repatriated 5,464 ancestors and more than 20,000 funerary belongings. But 2,482 ancestors remain in active consultation with tribes, and another 2,161 are pending consultation — leaving thousands still in the museum’s possession past the target deadline.

The Peabody has now extended its timeline by two years and plans to proactively be “reaching out to Tribes to initiate consultation on these ancestors” over that time period, according to a Monday website update.

A Faculty of Arts and Sciences spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.

The Monday release also came after the museum missed two consecutive reporting deadlines. In 2024, Harvard said the Peabody would update its public the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act dashboard twice annually — in June and December. Until Monday, the dashboard had not been updated since June 30, 2024, blowing past the December 2024, June 2025, and December 2025 reporting periods.

The museum published the new data following repeated inquiries from The Crimson beginning last month.

The figures represent an increase of 875 ancestors repatriated since the June 2024 data release, when the museum reported 4,589 total repatriations. The number of funerary belongings repatriated has nearly doubled, rising from 11,094 as of June 2024 to “more than 20,000.”

According to the data, in several states, including Northeastern states, as well as Nevada, the Dakotas, South Carolina, Michigan, Alabama, Florida, and Hawaii, 99 percent of the ancestors were returned to their tribes.

To facilitate repatriations, the Peabody issues Federal Register Notices describing ancestors and their associated funerary belongings so tribes can submit claims. The data shows a sharp increase in notices filed in recent years, with 55 published in 2024 — the most in a single year — followed by 53 in 2025.

NAGPRA is a federal law, passed in 1990, which requires museums and federal agencies to return Native American human remains, funerary objects, sacred objects, and objects of cultural patrimony to their lineal descendants and affiliated tribes. Harvard began its inventory process in the 1990s, contacting all 574 federal recognized tribes, and the repatriation process began after the inventory was completed in 2001.

As part of the initial three-year effort, the Peabody more than doubled its NAGPRA-dedicated staff and created a standalone NAGPRA department, which is in contact with 50-75 tribes annually. Since Jan. 1, 2025, the museum’s collections have also been closed to external research requests and visits, accessible only to Harvard faculty, students, staff, and tribal representatives visiting for NAGPRA consultation.

—Staff writer Shalini N. Ramchune can be reached at [email protected] and on Signal at shaliniramchune.03. Follow her on X @ShaliniRamchune.