San Joaquin County, California
Institutions reported making 47% of the more than 1,700 Native American remains taken from San Joaquin County, California available for return to tribes under NAGPRA.
There are 14 institutions that reported Native American remains taken from San Joaquin County, California.
| Institution | Remains Not Made Available for Return | Remains Made Available for Return | % of Remains Made Available for Return |
|---|---|---|---|
| University of California, Berkeley | 867 | 36 | 4% |
| University of California, Davis | 48 | 0 | 0% |
| Harvard University | 22 | 0 | 0% |
| Robert S. Peabody Institute of Archaeology, Phillips Academy | 2 | 0 | 0% |
| Illinois State Museum | 1 | 0 | 0% |
| U.S. Department of Defense | 1 | 0 | 0% |
| Autry Museum of the American West | 0 | 1 | 100% |
| California Department of Parks and Recreation | 0 | 25 | 100% |
| California Department of Transportation | 0 | 498 | 100% |
| California State University, Long Beach | 0 | 255 | 100% |
| California State University, Sacramento | 0 | 5 | 100% |
| Grand Rapids Public Museum | 0 | 2 | 100% |
| New York University, College of Dentistry | 0 | 4 | 100% |
| University of the Pacific | 0 | 17 | 100% |
Institutions made Native American remains taken from San Joaquin County, California available for return to 25 tribes.
| Tribe | Remains Made Available for Return to Tribe |
|---|---|
| Santa Rosa Indian Community of the Santa Rosa Rancheria, California | 838 |
| Ione Band of Miwok Indians of California | 835 |
| Table Mountain Rancheria | 827 |
| Picayune Rancheria of Chukchansi Indians of California | 826 |
| Buena Vista Rancheria of Me-Wuk Indians of California | 824 |
| Chicken Ranch Rancheria of Me-Wuk Indians of California | 824 |
| Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians, Shingle Springs Rancheria (Verona Tract), California | 824 |
| Tuolumne Band of Me-Wuk Indians of the Tuolumne Rancheria of California | 824 |
| Jackson Band of Miwuk Indians | 822 |
| Tule River Indian Tribe of the Tule River Reservation, California | 810 |
| California Valley Miwok Tribe, California | 807 |
| United Auburn Indian Community of the Auburn Rancheria of California | 568 |
| Wilton Rancheria, California | 547 |
| Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, California | 42 |
| Cher-Ae Heights Indian Community of the Trinidad Rancheria, California | 38 |
| Middletown Rancheria of Pomo Indians of California | 38 |
| Tejon Indian Tribe | 6 |
| El Dorado Miwok Rancheria | 5 |
| Nashville-El Dorado Miwok | 5 |
| Guidiville Rancheria of California | 2 |
| Berry Creek Rancheria of Maidu Indians of California | 1 |
| Enterprise Rancheria of Maidu Indians of California | 1 |
| Greenville Rancheria | 1 |
| Mooretown Rancheria of Maidu Indians of California | 1 |
| Susanville Indian Rancheria, California | 1 |
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This tool presents a dataset maintained by the National Park Service containing all the Native American human remains and associated funerary objects that institutions have reported to the federal government under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. The dataset includes information about the state and county where remains and objects were taken from, which institutions hold them and whether they have been made available for return to tribes.
The data is self-reported by institutions. The amount of unrepatriated Native American remains reported by institutions is a minimum estimate of individuals and institutions frequently adjust these numbers when they reinventory groups of remains. Some institutions that are subject to NAGPRA have also entirely failed to report the remains in their possession. As a result, the numbers provided are best taken as estimates. The actual number and geographic scope of what’s held by publicly funded institutions is larger than what is presently documented.
ProPublica supplemented this dataset with information about cultural affiliation and disposition to specific tribes by systematically parsing the text of Notices of Inventory Completion published in the Federal Register. An additional dataset from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Tribal Directory Assessment Tool, was used for the section on remains not made available for return from counties that each tribe has indicated interest in to the federal government.
Institution location and tribal headquarters location information was provided by National NAGPRA. The location of some groups that are not federally recognized was provided through research by ProPublica.
Institutions that are part of a larger entity are grouped. (For example, the Mesa Verde National Park is part of the U.S. Department of the Interior.)
Institutions that have not submitted information to the federal government are not listed. The Smithsonian Institution is not listed because its repatriation process falls under the National Museum of the American Indian Act and it is not required to publicly report its holdings with the same detail as institutions subject to NAGPRA.
If you work for an institution and would like to provide comment on your institution’s repatriation efforts, please email [email protected]. If you think the data is incorrect or have a data request, please get in touch. We are aware of some issues with the accuracy of location information and tribes mistakenly being identified for disposition of Native American remains in published notices.
If you want to share something else with ProPublica, we’d like to hear from you.
If you have questions about implementing or complying with the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, get in touch with National NAGPRA or the NAGPRA Community of Practice.
We use the word “tribes” to refer to all groups that institutions made Native American remains available to under NAGPRA. This includes tribes, nations, bands, pueblos, communities, Native Alaskan villages, Native Hawaiian organizations and non-federally recognized groups.
Data sources from Department of the Interior, National Park Service, National NAGPRA Program, the Federal Register, Department of Housing and Development, Tribal Directory Assessment Tool

