University of California, Davis
The Univ. of California, Davis has the 71st largest collection of unrepatriated Native American remains in the U.S. The institution reported still having the remains of at least 100 Native Americans that it has not made available for return to tribes.
The institution has made available for return 59% of the more than 400 Native American remains that it reported to the federal government.
Where Native American remains reported by the Univ. of California, Davis were taken from
Timeline of Native American remains made available for return to tribes by the Univ. of California, Davis
How the Univ. of California, Davis compares to other institutions
The Univ. of California, Davis made Native American remains available for return to 64 tribes.
| Tribe | Remains Made Available for Return To |
|---|---|
| Cachil DeHe Band of Wintun Indians of the Colusa Indian Community of the Colusa Rancheria, California | 165 |
| Kletsel Dehe Wintun of the Cortina Rancheria | 165 |
| Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation, California | 165 |
| Buena Vista Rancheria of Me-Wuk Indians of California | 57 |
| Ione Band of Miwok Indians of California | 57 |
| Jackson Band of Miwuk Indians | 57 |
| Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians, Shingle Springs Rancheria (Verona Tract), California | 57 |
| United Auburn Indian Community of the Auburn Rancheria of California | 57 |
| Wilton Rancheria, California | 57 |
| California Valley Miwok Tribe, California | 46 |
| Chicken Ranch Rancheria of Me-Wuk Indians of California | 44 |
| Round Valley Indian Tribes of the Round Valley Reservation, California | 19 |
| Susanville Indian Rancheria, California | 18 |
| Redding Rancheria, California | 17 |
| Pit River Tribe, California | 16 |
| Alturas Indian Rancheria, California | 15 |
| Tuolumne Band of Me-Wuk Indians of the Tuolumne Rancheria of California | 5 |
| Big Valley Band of Pomo Indians of the Big Valley Rancheria, California | 4 |
| Cloverdale Rancheria of Pomo Indians of California | 4 |
| Coyote Valley Band of Pomo Indians of California | 4 |
| Dry Creek Rancheria Band of Pomo Indians, California | 4 |
| Elem Indian Colony of Pomo Indians of the Sulphur Bank Rancheria, California | 4 |
| Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, California | 4 |
| Guidiville Rancheria of California | 4 |
| Habematolel Pomo of Upper Lake, California | 4 |
| Hopland Band of Pomo Indians, California | 4 |
| Kashia Band of Pomo Indians of the Stewarts Point Rancheria, California | 4 |
| Koi Nation of Northern California | 4 |
| Lytton Rancheria of California | 4 |
| Manchester Band of Pomo Indians of the Manchester Rancheria, California | 4 |
| Middletown Rancheria of Pomo Indians of California | 4 |
| Pinoleville Pomo Nation, California | 4 |
| Potter Valley Tribe, California | 4 |
| Redwood Valley or Little River Band of the Redwood Valley Rancheria California | 4 |
| Robinson Rancheria | 4 |
| Scotts Valley Band of Pomo Indians of California | 4 |
| Sherwood Valley Rancheria of Pomo Indians of California | 4 |
| Bridgeport Indian Colony | 3 |
| Burns Paiute Tribe | 3 |
| Cedarville Rancheria, California | 3 |
| Fort Bidwell Indian Community of the Fort Bidwell Reservation of California | 3 |
| Fort Independence Indian Community of Paiute Indians of the Fort Independence Reservation, California | 3 |
| Fort McDermitt Paiute and Shoshone Tribes of the Fort McDermitt Indian Reservation, Nevada and Oregon | 3 |
| Lovelock Paiute Tribe of the Lovelock Indian Colony, Nevada | 3 |
| Paiute-Shoshone Tribe of the Fallon Reservation and Colony, Nevada | 3 |
| Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe of the Pyramid Lake Reservation, Nevada | 3 |
| Reno-Sparks Indian Colony, Nevada | 3 |
| Summit Lake Paiute Tribe of Nevada | 3 |
| Utu Utu Gwaitu Paiute Tribe of the Benton Paiute Reservation, California | 3 |
| Walker River Paiute Tribe of the Walker River Reservation, Nevada | 3 |
| Yerington Paiute Tribe of the Yerington Colony and Campbell Ranch, Nevada | 3 |
| Cahto Tribe of the Laytonville Rancheria | 2 |
| Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon | 2 |
| Barrow Inupiat Traditional Government, Native Village of | 1 |
| Berry Creek Rancheria of Maidu Indians of California | 1 |
| Big Pine Paiute Tribe of the Owens Valley | 1 |
| Bishop Paiute Tribe | 1 |
| Enterprise Rancheria of Maidu Indians of California | 1 |
| Greenville Rancheria | 1 |
| Lone Pine Paiute-Shoshone Tribe | 1 |
| Mechoopda Indian Tribe of Chico Rancheria, California | 1 |
| Mooretown Rancheria of Maidu Indians of California | 1 |
| Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Mission Indians of the Santa Ynez Reservation, California | 1 |
| Washoe Tribe of Nevada & California | 1 |
The Univ. of California, Davis reported making 91% of more than 52,800 associated funerary objects available for return to tribes.
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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