The remains of nearly 5,000 Native Americans may soon return to their tribes decades after they were excavated by the largest federally owned utility in the United States.

The Tennessee Valley Authority obtained the remains of over 4,871 Indigenous people as they constructed dams near Native American burial grounds. Tribes had called for the bodies and artifacts to be returned for decades, but the agency instead donated many to Southern museums and universities.

In accordance with the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, a 1990 federal law which provides a process to transfer certain Native American cultural items from museum and agency collections, the TVA announced that starting April 28, tribes may request the return of the remains. They said that they have been working with Indigenous communities since 2009 to catalog artifacts and determine where to return them.

“We’re taking this effort to be leaders and be partners with our tribes to get these items and the ancestors back where they need to be,” spokesman for the TVA Scott Fiedler told The New York Times, adding that they wanted "to improve the lives of the people of the valley, both past and present, and doing the right thing.”

While the decision marks a step forward for reparations in archeology, many Native tribe members feel that it was long overdue. Beth Wright, attorney at the Native American Rights Fund and Pueblo of Laguna tribe citizen, told The Times that "when these items were taken, when they were held, when they were not disclosed to the tribal nations that they belong to, that was causing harm to the tribal nations.”

In 2022, the National Park Service reported that the remains of over 108,000 Indigenous people, as well as more than 765,000 artifacts, were in the possession of federal agencies, museums, and universities.

“When you think about having relatives’ remains and cultural items returned to where they belong, it’s not just about that process of going back,” Wright said. “It’s about the healing that comes along with that.”