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In North Carolina, one research lab still has Native remains despite law to return them

Remains representing more than 600 Native American individuals sit in collections at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Research Laboratories of Archeology — the state’s oldest North Carolina-focused archeology center.

Those remains have not been made available for return to tribes, despite a federal law intended to facilitate the repatriation of Native ancestors and related funerary artifacts.

Laura Pellicer of member station WUNC reports.

This story was co-reported with Lilly Knoepp of Blue Ridge Public Radio.

This article was originally published on WBUR.org.

Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.