University of Oregon Museum of Natural and Cultural History
The Univ. of Oregon reported still having the remains of at least 73 Native Americans.
The institution has made available for return 87% of the more than 500 Native American remains that it reported to the federal government.
Where Native American remains reported by the Univ. of Oregon were taken from
Timeline of Native American remains made available for return to tribes by the Univ. of Oregon
How the Univ. of Oregon compares to other institutions
The Univ. of Oregon made Native American remains available for return to 51 tribes.
| Tribe | Remains Made Available for Return To |
|---|---|
| Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians of Oregon | 247 |
| Klamath Tribes | 191 |
| Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Community of Oregon | 187 |
| Modoc Nation | 144 |
| Coquille Indian Tribe | 44 |
| Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon | 40 |
| Elk Valley Rancheria, California | 37 |
| Tolowa Dee-ni' Nation | 37 |
| Burns Paiute Tribe | 27 |
| Confederated Tribes of the Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians of Oregon | 27 |
| Shoalwater Bay Indian Tribe of the Shoalwater Bay Indian Reservation | 18 |
| Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation | 16 |
| Fort Sill Apache Tribe of Oklahoma | 9 |
| Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation | 6 |
| Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation | 5 |
| Native Hawaiian Organizations | 5 |
| Nez Perce Tribe | 5 |
| Quartz Valley Indian Community of the Quartz Valley Reservation of California | 5 |
| Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis Reservation | 4 |
| Kalispel Indian Community of the Kalispel Reservation | 4 |
| Spokane Tribe of the Spokane Reservation | 4 |
| Alturas Indian Rancheria, California | 3 |
| Association of Hawaiian Civic Clubs | 3 |
| Department of Hawaiian Homelands | 3 |
| Fort Bidwell Indian Community of the Fort Bidwell Reservation of California | 3 |
| Friends of Iolani Palace | 3 |
| Hawaiian Genealogy Society | 3 |
| Kaiwi Olelo O'Hawaii | 3 |
| Kamehameha School | 3 |
| Kekumano 'Ohana | 3 |
| Native Hawaiian Advisory Council | 3 |
| O'ahu Island Burial Council | 3 |
| Office of Hawaiian Affairs | 3 |
| Pa Ku'i-a-lua | 3 |
| Pit River Tribe, California | 3 |
| Pu'uhonua O Waimanalo | 3 |
| Round Valley Indian Tribes of the Round Valley Reservation, California | 3 |
| Susanville Indian Rancheria, California | 3 |
| Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community of the Salt River Reservation, Arizona | 2 |
| Buena Vista Rancheria of Me-Wuk Indians of California | 1 |
| Chicken Ranch Rancheria of Me-Wuk Indians of California | 1 |
| Fort McDermitt Paiute and Shoshone Tribes of the Fort McDermitt Indian Reservation, Nevada and Oregon | 1 |
| Jackson Band of Miwuk Indians | 1 |
| Kletsel Dehe Wintun of the Cortina Rancheria | 1 |
| Knik Tribe | 1 |
| Picayune Rancheria of Chukchansi Indians of California | 1 |
| Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe of the Pyramid Lake Reservation, Nevada | 1 |
| Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians, Shingle Springs Rancheria (Verona Tract), California | 1 |
| Table Mountain Rancheria | 1 |
| Tule River Indian Tribe of the Tule River Reservation, California | 1 |
| Tuolumne Band of Me-Wuk Indians of the Tuolumne Rancheria of California | 1 |
The Univ. of Oregon reported making 95% of more than 3,600 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