JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Over the last century, the Mississippi Department of Archives and History has stored the remains of hundreds of Native Americans who once inhabited the state. Most of the remains were found in the Mississippi Delta and range from 750 to 1,800 years old. For decades, they sat on shelves in the state’s collections. Now, 403 Chickasaw ancestors have been returned to their people. This initiative is the largest of its kind conducted by the state of Mississippi since the passage of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, or NAGPRA, three decades ago.
