Alabama archives transferring Native American remains to Indian tribes with ties to state

The Alabama Department of Archives and History is beginning the process of transferring Native American human remains and items from burial sites to federally recognized Indian tribes with historical ties to Alabama, a process called repatriation that is required by federal law.

The ADAH Board of Trustees voted Wednesday to formally remove from its permanent collections 37 sets of human remains, plus 349 funerary objects that came from burial sites with human remains. The human remains and items were excavated from two sites in Montgomery and Lowndes counties in the early 1900s.