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The Repatriation Database Data from Nov. 29, 2023

Museum of Riverside

Located in California

The Museum of Riverside reported still having the remains of at least three Native Americans.

The institution has made available for return 93% of the 42 Native American remains that it reported to the federal government.

remains of 39 Native Americans made available for return to tribes
remains of at least 3 Native Americans not made available for return

Where Native American remains reported by the Museum of Riverside were taken from

Each county is a peak
Height is the minimum amount of remains taken from county, as reported by institution
Color is reported rate of remains made available for return to tribes
0%100%
Institution reported no remains taken from these counties
Location of institution
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Note: The Museum of Riverside reported remains of at least three Native Americans with no location information. These remains have not been made available for return to tribes.
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.

Timeline of Native American remains made available for return to tribes by the Museum of Riverside

Tribal and institutional capacity, funding, staffing, regulatory changes, audits, Review Committee decisions and litigation may influence timelines. Under NAGPRA, institutions determine whether Native American remains may be returned through cultural affiliation using evidence such as tribal traditional knowledge and biological and archaeological links, or through disposition based on geographic affiliation.

How the Museum of Riverside compares to other institutions

The amount of Native American remains still held by institutions ranges widely.

The Museum of Riverside made Native American remains available for return to 47 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
Ione Band of Miwok Indians of California27
Campo Band of Diegueno Mission Indians of the Campo Indian Reservation, California5
Capitan Grande Band of Diegueno Mission Indians of California5
Ewiiaapaayp Band of Kumeyaay Indians, California5
Iipay Nation of Santa Ysabel, California5
Inaja Band of Diegueno Mission Indians of the Inaja and Cosmit Reservation, California5
Jamul Indian Village of California5
La Posta Band of Diegueno Mission Indians of the La Posta Indian Reservation, California5
Manzanita Band of Diegueno Mission Indians of the Manzanita Reservation, California5
Mesa Grande Band of Diegueno Mission Indians of the Mesa Grande Reservation, California5
San Pasqual Band of Diegueno Mission Indians of California5
Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation5
Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians of the Agua Caliente Indian Reservation, California2
Augustine Band of Cahuilla Indians, California2
Cabazon Band of Cahuilla Indians2
Cahuilla Band of Indians2
Crow Tribe of Montana2
La Jolla Band of Luiseno Indians, California2
Los Coyotes Band of Cahuilla and Cupeno Indians, California2
Morongo Band of Mission Indians, California2
Pala Band of Mission Indians2
Pechanga Band of Indians2
Ramona Band of Cahuilla, California2
Rincon Band of Luiseno Indians2
Santa Rosa Band of Cahuilla Indians, California2
Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Mission Indians of the Santa Ynez Reservation, California2
Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indians, California2
Yuhaaviatam of San Manuel Nation2
Inupiat Community of the Arctic Slope1
Pueblo of Acoma, New Mexico1
Pueblo of Cochiti, New Mexico1
Pueblo of Isleta, New Mexico1
Pueblo of Jemez, New Mexico1
Pueblo of Laguna, 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
Santa Rosa Indian Community of the Santa Rosa Rancheria, California1
Zuni Tribe of the Zuni Reservation, New Mexico1

The Museum of Riverside reported making 100% of more than 100 associated funerary objects available for return to tribes.

The funerary objects were taken along with Native American remains reported by the institution.
123 associated funerary objects made available for return to tribes
0 associated funerary objects not made available for return
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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