Crystal Alberts, an English professor at the University of North Dakota, began looking for a missing pipe, headdress and moccasins last winter.
The collection was taken out of the library in 1988 after students questioned whether the university should showcase objects of religious significance to Native Americans. In the back rooms and storage closets, Alberts and her assistant opened boxes.
Alberts could see the pipe inside. She said that the assistant tried to get it.
Alberts advised against touching it.
She asked for help from a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians.
Lyons watched as Alberts and her colleagues opened box after box. Lyons didn't expect to find so many samples of human remains, many of them in boxes with no identification information.
The most inhumane way to describe what we have found is by Lyons. These were once people.
The university had failed to treat Native American remains with dignity and return them to their tribes as required by federal law.
She said that they were an institution that didn't do the right thing.
As soon as the bodies were discovered, administrators from the University of North Dakota reached out to the tribes to begin the process of returning the remains and religious objects.
"What we've done as a university is terrible, and I will continue to apologize for it."
Lyons said that the process may be difficult because of the lack of information.
She is worried that we won't be able to identify people or place them where they should be.
The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) was passed in 1990 and requires institutions that receive federal funding to catalog their collections with the National Parks Service. The University of North Dakota has no entries in the federal inventory because it has Indigenous artifacts.
The discovery at UND is an example of a larger problem that has plagued Indigenous communities for hundreds of years. More than 100,000 are housed in institutions despite the law. The apology and action by the administrators of North Dakota points to the fact that tribal nations are increasing pressure on public universities, museums and even libraries to comply with the law and return the Native American ancestors and cultural items in their possession.
The governor of North Dakota apologized for the treatment of the indigenous remains and artifacts. There is an opportunity to enhance our understanding and respect for indigenous cultures and to become a model for the nation by conducting this process with the utmost deference to the wishes, customs and traditions of tribal nations.
He and his colleagues decided to honor the requests of tribal officials not to announce the discovery until a consensus could be built on how to handle the remains.
The leaders of the University of North Dakota should be applauded for their response to the discovery and for their willingness to apologize. They called for accountability as well.
Mark Fox, chairman of the Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara Nation, said in a statement to NBC News that they will be watching the situation closely.
Many universities and museums have NAGPRA officers who inventory Indigenous remains and cultural items and eventually return them. UND doesn't have its own office. The university has set up a committee to review the findings and is considering hiring staff to help with NAGPRA cases.
Dianne Derosiers is a historic preservation officer for the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate, a tribe in North Dakota. She asked if she could get answers to that question.
The university will investigate who is accountable.
Lyons hopes that UND's discovery will prompt other institutions to comply with NAGPRA.
She told them to look at what they have. If you know anything, you need to say it and not hide it, and wait for someone else to do it. You need to address that immediately.
The article was first published on NBC News.
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