Skip to content
ProPublica
Donate
ProPublica
Donate
The Repatriation Database Data from Nov. 29, 2023

Oregon State University

2 subunits · Located in Oregon

Oregon State Univ. reported still having the remains of at least 63 Native Americans.

The institution has made available for return 70% of the more than 200 Native American remains that it reported to the federal government.

remains of 147 Native Americans made available for return to tribes
remains of at least 63 Native Americans not made available for return

Where Native American remains reported by Oregon State Univ. 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
Swipe interaction icon
Note: Oregon State Univ. reported remains of at least 53 Native Americans with no location information. 0% of these remains were 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 Oregon State Univ.

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 Oregon State Univ. compares to other institutions

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

Oregon State Univ. made Native American remains available for return to 89 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
Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians of Oregon58
Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Community of Oregon55
Coquille Indian Tribe19
Ho-Chunk Nation of Wisconsin15
Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska15
Absentee-Shawnee Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma14
Shawnee Tribe12
Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma11
Cherokee Nation10
Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon10
Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians10
United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians in Oklahoma10
Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma7
Otoe-Missouria Tribe of Indians, Oklahoma7
Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska7
Hannahville Indian Community, Michigan4
Office of Hawaiian Affairs4
Peoria Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma4
Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes of the Fort Peck Indian Reservation, Montana3
Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe of the Cheyenne River Reservation, South Dakota3
Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation3
Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation3
Delaware Nation, Oklahoma3
Hui Malama I Na Kupuna O Hawai'i Nei3
Kaw Nation, Oklahoma3
Oglala Sioux Tribe3
Omaha Tribe of Nebraska3
Osage Nation3
Ponca Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma3
Ponca Tribe of Nebraska3
Quapaw Nation3
Tonkawa Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma3
Afognak Native Corporation2
Afognak, Native Village of2
Akhiok, Native Village of2
Akhiok-Kaguyak, Inc.2
Alutiiq Tribe of Old Harbor2
Ayakulik, Inc.2
Bell Flats Natives, Inc.2
Crow Creek Sioux Tribe of the Crow Creek Reservation, South Dakota2
Kaguyak Village2
Karluk, Native Village of2
Koniag, Inc.2
Larsen Bay, Native Village of2
Leisnoi, Inc.2
Litnik, Inc.2
Lower Brule Sioux Tribe of the Lower Brule Reservation, South Dakota2
Lower Sioux Indian Community in the State of Minnesota2
Natives of Kodiak, Inc.2
Old Harbor Native Corporation2
Ouzinkie Native Corporation2
Ouzinkie, Native Village of2
Port Lions, Native Village of2
Prairie Island Indian Community in the State of Minnesota2
Rosebud Sioux Tribe of the Rosebud Indian Reservation, South Dakota2
Samish Indian Nation2
Santee Sioux Nation, Nebraska2
Shuyak, Inc.2
Standing Rock Sioux Tribe of North and South Dakota2
Sun'aq Tribe of Kodiak2
Swinomish Indian Tribal Community2
Uganik Natives, Inc.2
Uyak, Inc.2
Burns Paiute Tribe1
Calista Corporation1
Citizen Potawatomi Nation, Oklahoma1
Clatsop-Nehalem Confederated Tribes1
Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis Reservation1
Confederated Tribes of the Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians of Oregon1
Cowlitz Indian Tribe1
Doyon, Ltd.1
Forest County Potawatomi Community, Wisconsin1
Kickapoo Tribe of Indians of the Kickapoo Reservation in Kansas1
Kickapoo Tribe of Oklahoma1
Miami Tribe of Oklahoma1
Muckleshoot Indian Tribe1
Nisqually Indian Tribe1
Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians, Michigan and Indiana1
Prairie Band of Potawatomi Nation1
Sac and Fox Nation of Missouri in Kansas and Nebraska1
Sac and Fox Nation, Oklahoma1
Sac and Fox Tribe of the Mississippi in Iowa1
Snoqualmie Indian Tribe1
Spokane Tribe of the Spokane Reservation1
Stillaguamish Tribe of Indians of Washington1
Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Reservation, North Dakota1
Tolowa Dee-ni' Nation1
Wanapum Band1
Washoe Tribe of Nevada & California1

Oregon State Univ. reported Native American remains from two sub-institutions.

Sub-institutionRemains Not Made Available for ReturnRemains Made Available for Return% of Remains Made Available for Return
Oregon State Univ., Dept. of Anthropology598960%
Oregon State Univ., Horner Collection45894%

Oregon State Univ. reported making 98% of more than 400 associated funerary objects available for return to tribes.

The funerary objects were taken along with Native American remains reported by the institution.
420 associated funerary objects made available for return to tribes
at least 8 associated funerary objects not made available for return
Get in touch

Know how an institution is handling repatriation? Have a personal story to share? We'd like to hear from you.

Learn how to report on repatriation

Watch an informational webinar with our reporters.

Sign up for the newsletter
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