More than 700 human remains have been reburied at Angel Mounds State Historic Site.
Indiana University and several Native American tribes and nations completed the repatriation more than 80 years after the remains were removed from the site.
Mike Linderman is Indiana’s Western Regional Director for State Historic Sites. He tells WNIN the remains were excavated in 1939…
"The remains were kept here on the site until about 1970 or '71 and because we didn't have the proper storage facilities here, everything was moved to Bloomington to the IU campus to the Glenn Black Lab of Archeology."
Linderman says the federal Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, passed in 1990, led to the move…
"Institutions that hold Native American human remains, it's their duty to return these back to where they came from hopefully through a federally recognized tribe laying claim to them, or actual decendants of the people."
Linderman says the return of the remains to an undisclosed location on the Angel Mounds site is welcome…
"It's a great thing for the property, great thing for these people to be returned to the grounds, and the tribes are very happy that this has happened as well."
Officials would not comment on any ceremonies that might have been held during the reburial.