Gilcrease Museum to Return More Native American Remains

Gilcrease Museum plans to release another large group of Native American remains and associated items to tribes across the country. Gilcrease is continuing a years-long effort to inventory and return items subject to NAGPRA, the Native American Grave Protection and Repatriation Act.

The latest “deaccession” from Gilcrease, according to City records, includes 64 “ancestors” collected in Illinois and purchased by Gilcrease in the 1950s and 1960s. 

According to a Repatriation Database maintained by ProPublica, Gilcrease once had 600 items listed as remains, and in the most recent update of January, 2025, listed at least 200 remains. Gilcrease had previously said that what is catalogued as remains could be a single bone to a more complete set of human remains, with most collected from Arkansas and Illinois.

Last year, Gilcrease Anthropology Collections Steward Laura Bryant "You can't own and collect human remains, you can't own humans, so there's no reason we should have these people, who were violently removed from their resting place, in the museum.”

Previous Story: Gilcrease Updates Progress on Repatriating Human Remains, Artifacts

The Gilcrease collection, including the human remains, belongs to the City of Tulsa, and the museum must have approval from the City Council and the Mayor to release them. The Museum, which is temporarily closed for construction, is managed by the University of Tulsa.

The items in the Gilcrease collection come from a wide variety of sources, including some personally collected by the late Thomas Gilcrease. A history of Thomas Gilcrease, published by the Museum, says, “An ongoing fascination with archaeology and ethnology also led him to sponsor several field excavations of Indian mounds in the Mississippi Valley. The objects acquired from his digs and his other post-1955 collecting efforts eventually reached the museum through a bequest after Gilcrease’s death in 1962.”

Under NAGPRA, museums are required to examine collections and attempt to associate all remains and items related to burials with the Native American groups to which they belong. In some cases, that cannot be determined with certainty, and unassociated objects are given to tribes along with other items that are associated.

DETAILS ON THE DEACCESSION

From Pike County, Illinois

64 Ancestors, 1216 associated funerary objects, and 106 unassociated funerary objects.

The items were claimed by the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, Eastern Shawnee of Oklahoma, Forest County Potawatomi Community, Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Band of Pottawatomi Indians (Gun Lake Tribe), Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska, Kaw Nation, Meskwaki Nation, Miami Tribe of Oklahoma, Omaha Tribe of Nebraska, Osage Nation, Otoe-Missouria Tribe of Oklahoma, Peoria Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma, Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians, Ponca Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma, Ponca Tribe of Nebraska, Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation, Quapaw Nation, Sac and Fox Nation, Shawnee Tribe, and Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska.

From Tulare County, California

Four unassociated funerary objects and 5 objects of cultural patrimony.

The items were claimed by the Tule River Indian Tribe.

From the Coconino National Forest in Flagstaff, Arizona

225 ceramic vessels, lithic tools, and beads, purchased by Gilcrease in 1950.

Gilcrease records indicate the items were illegally removed, and the National Park Service will take possession.

From Kern County, California

Eight unassociated funerary objects

The items were claimed by the Tejon Indian Tribe in Bakersfield, California.

The four sets of items are on the April 30th Tulsa City Council agenda to approve the deaccession and forward the paperwork to Mayor Monroe Nichols for final approval.