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The Repatriation Database Data from Nov. 29, 2023 Arizona

Yavapai County, Arizona

Institutions reported making 75% of the more than 800 Native American remains taken from Yavapai County, Arizona available for return to tribes under NAGPRA.

remains of 642 Native Americans made available for return to tribes
remains of at least 209 Native Americans not made available for return

There are 16 institutions that reported Native American remains taken from Yavapai County, Arizona.

InstitutionRemains Not Made Available for ReturnRemains Made Available for Return% of Remains Made Available for Return
Harvard University5500%
University of Arizona, Arizona State Museum5219379%
American Museum of Natural History4900%
U.S. Department of Agriculture3219686%
Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, Center for Archaeological Investigations1300%
Museum of Northern Arizona400%
Elgin Public Museum100%
Grout Museum of History and Science100%
Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History100%
University of Michigan Museum of Anthropology100%
Arizona State Parks and Trails01100%
Denver Art Museum01100%
Heard Museum02100%
S'edav Va'aki Museum09100%
U.S. Department of the Interior0239100%
University of Colorado Museum01100%
Under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, when an institution establishes a connection between tribes and remains, it must publish a list of the tribes eligible to make a repatriation claim. The remains are then made available for return to the tribe(s). Once a tribal claim is made, physical transfer may occur. Many remains have been physically returned to tribes, but data on this is spotty because the law does not require institutions to report when these transfers occur.

Institutions made Native American remains taken from Yavapai County, Arizona available for return to 39 tribes.

Institutions often make remains available for return to multiple tribes, so the amount of remains listed below may be counted for more than one tribe.
TribeRemains Made Available for Return to Tribe
Hopi Tribe of Arizona579
Zuni Tribe of the Zuni Reservation, New Mexico553
Ak-Chin Indian Community542
Gila River Indian Community of the Gila River Indian Reservation, Arizona542
Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community of the Salt River Reservation, Arizona542
Tohono O'odham Nation of Arizona542
Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation, Arizona442
Yavapai-Prescott Indian Tribe442
Yavapai-Apache Nation of the Camp Verde Indian Reservation, Arizona135
Hualapai Indian Tribe of the Hualapai Indian Reservation, Arizona125
San Carlos Apache Tribe of the San Carlos Reservation, Arizona123
Tonto Apache Tribe of Arizona123
White Mountain Apache Tribe of the Fort Apache Reservation, Arizona123
Apache Tribe of Oklahoma62
Fort Sill Apache Tribe of Oklahoma62
Jicarilla Apache Nation, New Mexico62
Mescalero Apache Tribe of the Mescalero Reservation, New Mexico62
Havasupai Tribe of the Havasupai Reservation, Arizona2
Pueblo of Acoma, New Mexico2
Pueblo of Laguna, New Mexico2
Colorado River Indian Tribes of the Colorado River Indian Reservation, Arizona and California1
Fort Mojave Indian Tribe of Arizona, California and Nevada1
Ohkay Owingeh, New Mexico (formerly the Pueblo of San Juan)1
Pueblo of Cochiti, New Mexico1
Pueblo of Isleta, New Mexico1
Pueblo of Jemez, New Mexico1
Pueblo of Nambe, New Mexico1
Pueblo of Picuris, New Mexico1
Pueblo of Pojoaque, New Mexico1
Pueblo of San Felipe, New Mexico1
Pueblo of San Ildefonso, New Mexico1
Pueblo of Sandia, New Mexico1
Pueblo of Santa Ana, New Mexico1
Pueblo of Santa Clara, New Mexico1
Pueblo of Taos, New Mexico1
Pueblo of Tesuque, New Mexico1
Pueblo of Zia, New Mexico1
Santo Domingo Pueblo1
Ysleta del Sur Pueblo1
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About the Data

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