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The Repatriation Database Data from Nov. 29, 2023

University of California, Riverside

Located in California

The Univ. of California, Riverside reported still having the remains of at least 15 Native Americans.

The institution has made available for return 44% of the 27 Native American remains that it reported to the federal government.

remains of 12 Native Americans made available for return to tribes
remains of at least 15 Native Americans not made available for return

Where Native American remains reported by the Univ. of California, 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 Univ. of California, 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 Univ. of California, 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 Univ. of California, Riverside compares to other institutions

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

The Univ. of California, Riverside made Native American remains available for return to 28 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
Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indians, California7
Morongo Band of Mission Indians, California6
Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians of the Agua Caliente Indian Reservation, California5
Augustine Band of Cahuilla Indians, California5
Cabazon Band of Cahuilla Indians5
Cahuilla Band of Indians5
Los Coyotes Band of Cahuilla and Cupeno Indians, California5
Ramona Band of Cahuilla, California5
Santa Rosa Band of Cahuilla Indians, California5
Pechanga Band of Indians2
Soboba Band of Luiseno Indians, California2
Campo Band of Diegueno Mission Indians of the Campo Indian Reservation, California1
Capitan Grande Band of Diegueno Mission Indians of California1
Ewiiaapaayp Band of Kumeyaay Indians, California1
Iipay Nation of Santa Ysabel, California1
Inaja Band of Diegueno Mission Indians of the Inaja and Cosmit Reservation, California1
Jamul Indian Village of California1
La Jolla Band of Luiseno Indians, California1
La Posta Band of Diegueno Mission Indians of the La Posta Indian Reservation, California1
Manzanita Band of Diegueno Mission Indians of the Manzanita Reservation, California1
Mesa Grande Band of Diegueno Mission Indians of the Mesa Grande Reservation, California1
Moapa Band of Paiute Indians of the Moapa River Indian Reservation, Nevada1
Pala Band of Mission Indians1
Pauma Band of Luiseno Mission Indians of the Pauma and Yuima Reservation, California1
Rincon Band of Luiseno Indians1
San Pasqual Band of Diegueno Mission Indians of California1
Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation1
Yuhaaviatam of San Manuel Nation1

The Univ. of California, Riverside reported making 99% of more than 12,600 associated funerary objects available for return to tribes.

The funerary objects were taken along with Native American remains reported by the institution.
12,585 associated funerary objects made available for return to tribes
at least 89 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