A Rediscovery of Caddo Heritage: The W. T. Scott Collection at the American Museum of Natural History

Back in August 1997, the Caddo Nation of Oklahoma had submitted a Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) claim for a cranium that had been obtained by the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) in New York City in 1877. Very little information was known about these remains, other than it had been obtained as a purchase/gift to the museum by Charles C, Jones Jr. and was found in a mound somewhere near the Shreveport vicinity in Caddo or Bossier Parish, Louisiana. Based on the presence of artificial cranial deformation, the museum dated these human remains to a period of between A.D. 800 and the contact period. Because of the cranial deformation, and the archeological investigations that had taken place in the past in Louisiana, the museum had determined that the remains were culturally affiliated to the Caddo Nation. Through consultation with the Caddo Nation of Oklahoma and the Cultural Resources Office staff at the AMNH, in February 200 l the Notice of Inventory Completion was published for these human remains in the Federal Register