The Smithsonian is Missing -- The Racist Dark History of Collecting Native Remains is Silenced

The Smithsonian exploits Native American arts and culture, while covering up its history of robbing graves and refusing to return Native American remains.

Whitewashing History and Harboring Native Remains

The Smithsonian paid bounties for Native American skulls for racist studies resulting in grave robbing, executions of Native people and the Massacre at Sand Creek. Today, the Smithsonian refuses to make the facts public, and delays the return of Native American remains to their homelands for reburial.

Brenda Norrell
Censored News
January 13, 2023

In a new database showing institutions harboring Native American remains -- the Smithsonian is missing.

The Smithsonian is concealing from the public its collection of more than 10,000 Native remains, and the dark history of its racist skull collection -- for the purpose of intelligence studies based on race -- which led to grave robbing. It was one reason for the Massacre at Sand Creek.

Smithsonian Without Ethics or Morality

Lakota Village, 1891, Wounded Knee, South Dakota

Smithsonian Without Ethics or Morality

By Brenda Norrell

Censored News

May 8, 2010

Since the creation of the National Museum of the American Indian, there has been an increased effort to conceal the true history of the Smithsonian Institution, especially in regard to harboring human remains and the racist cranium studies of American Indians.

The National Museum of the American Indian is the sixteenth museum of the Smithsonian Institution. The Smithsonian did not respond to my last request for information, regarding the number of American Indian remains, and American Indian skulls, that currently remain at the Smithsonian.

New database reveals where Native American human remains are being held

A depiction of one scene at Sand Creek by witness Howling Wolf Cheyenne

Give us our people back

Native American human remains are being held by museums and universities. Native Americans want to bring their ancestors home.

By Brenda Norrell

Censored News

A new database reveals which museums and universities have human remains of Native Americans. It shows which places have made those available for return, and which ones have not.

The database by ProPublica shows those not returning remains to the Tohono O'odham Nation including the University of Arizona Museum and Arizona State Museum. The places that have not made remains available to Oglala Lakota in Pine Ridge, South Dakota, include Harvard University and Milwaukee Public Museum

“We never ceded or relinquished our dead. They were stolen,” James Riding In, Pawnee and longtime professor at Arizona State University professor, said of the unreturned remains.

'Bad Press' Mvskoke Media in Oklahoma takes Censorship to Sundance Film Festival

Film Director Rebecca Landsberry-Baker

Sundance Film Festival features 'Bad Press' documentary: Mvskoke filmmaker takes tribal censorship to Sundance

Bad Press

U.S. DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION

By Sundance Film Festival

Angel Ellis is just trying to do her job. She’s a reporter for Mvskoke Media in Okmulgee, Oklahoma, and she wants to give her readers access to all the information relevant to the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. But that’s not an easy task, given that Angel and her colleagues believe in truth and transparency and aren't afraid to challenge the integrity of some questionable tribal officials.