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The Repatriation Database Data from Nov. 29, 2023

Utah

Institutions reported making 27% of the more than 1,800 Native American remains taken from Utah available for return to tribes under NAGPRA.

remains of 493 Native Americans made available for return to tribes
remains of at least 1,359 Native Americans not made available for return

There are seven institutions located in Utah that reported Native American remains taken from across the country.

InstitutionRemains Not Made Available for ReturnRemains Made Available for Return% of Remains Made Available for Return
Natural History Museum of Utah4166714%
U.S. Department of the Interior22024553%
Utah Department of Natural Resources1023727%
Brigham Young University, Museum of Peoples and Cultures814737%
Southern Utah University Archeological Repository6400%
U.S. Department of Agriculture8953%
Utah State University, Eastern Prehistoric Museum31684%

There are 32 institutions that reported Native American remains taken from Utah.

InstitutionRemains Not Made Available for ReturnRemains Made Available for Return% of Remains Made Available for Return
American Museum of Natural History42200%
Natural History Museum of Utah3086718%
U.S. Department of the Interior22424853%
Utah Department of Natural Resources653636%
Southern Utah University Archeological Repository6400%
Museum of Western Colorado5300%
Field Museum5100%
Brigham Young University, Museum of Peoples and Cultures484649%
Harvard University3700%
University of California, Berkeley2700%
Carnegie Museum of Natural History900%
Texas State University800%
U.S. Department of Agriculture81158%
Museum of New Mexico, Museum of Indian Arts and Culture700%
Los Angeles County Natural History Museum600%
University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology600%
University of Arizona, Arizona State Museum400%
Peabody Essex Museum300%
Utah State University, Eastern Prehistoric Museum31684%
Hastings Museum100%
Illinois State Museum100%
Rocky Ford Historical Museum100%
U.S. Department of Defense1267%
University of Wyoming100%
Wisconsin Historical Society100%
Colorado College01100%
Denver Museum of Nature and Science05100%
History Colorado04100%
Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History03100%
University of California, Los Angeles, Fowler Museum of Cultural History048100%
University of Colorado Museum04100%
University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Department of Anthropology02100%
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.

Institutions made Native American remains taken from Utah available for return to 59 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 Tribe
Hopi Tribe of Arizona357
Zuni Tribe of the Zuni Reservation, New Mexico237
Pueblo of Acoma, New Mexico137
Pueblo of Santa Clara, New Mexico137
Pueblo of Laguna, New Mexico126
Pueblo of Pojoaque, New Mexico126
Pueblo of San Felipe, New Mexico126
Pueblo of San Ildefonso, New Mexico126
Pueblo of Sandia, New Mexico126
Santo Domingo Pueblo126
Pueblo of Zia, New Mexico105
Pueblo of Santa Ana, New Mexico104
Pueblo of Jemez, New Mexico96
Pueblo of Tesuque, New Mexico96
Ohkay Owingeh, New Mexico (formerly the Pueblo of San Juan)93
Pueblo of Cochiti, New Mexico93
Pueblo of Isleta, New Mexico93
Pueblo of Nambe, New Mexico93
Pueblo of Picuris, New Mexico93
Pueblo of Taos, New Mexico93
Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah91
Ysleta del Sur Pueblo87
Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation, Utah65
Kaibab Band of Paiute Indians of the Kaibab Indian Reservation, Arizona52
Navajo Nation, Arizona, New Mexico and Utah43
Ute Mountain Ute Tribe29
Northwestern Band of Shoshoni Nation27
San Juan Southern Paiute Tribe of Arizona20
Southern Ute Indian Tribe of the Southern Ute Reservation, Colorado20
Confederated Tribes of the Goshute Reservation, Nevada and Utah15
Las Vegas Tribe of Paiute Indians of the Las Vegas Indian Colony, Nevada12
Moapa Band of Paiute Indians of the Moapa River Indian Reservation, Nevada11
Paiute-Shoshone Tribe of the Fallon Reservation and Colony, Nevada8
Summit Lake Paiute Tribe of Nevada7
Walker River Paiute Tribe of the Walker River Reservation, Nevada7
Yerington Paiute Tribe of the Yerington Colony and Campbell Ranch, Nevada7
Big Pine Paiute Tribe of the Owens Valley6
Bishop Paiute Tribe6
Bridgeport Indian Colony6
Fort McDermitt Paiute and Shoshone Tribes of the Fort McDermitt Indian Reservation, Nevada and Oregon6
Lone Pine Paiute-Shoshone Tribe6
Lovelock Paiute Tribe of the Lovelock Indian Colony, Nevada6
Northern Arapaho Tribe of the Wind River Reservation, Wyoming6
Shoshone-Paiute Tribes of the Duck Valley Reservation, Nevada6
Burns Paiute Tribe5
Fort Independence Indian Community of Paiute Indians of the Fort Independence Reservation, California5
Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe of the Pyramid Lake Reservation, Nevada5
Utu Utu Gwaitu Paiute Tribe of the Benton Paiute Reservation, California5
Duckwater Shoshone Tribe of the Duckwater Reservation, Nevada1
Eastern Shoshone Tribe of the Wind River Reservation, Wyoming1
Ely Shoshone Tribe of Nevada1
Havasupai Tribe of the Havasupai Reservation, Arizona1
Lineal Descendant1
Reno-Sparks Indian Colony, Nevada1
Shoshone-Bannock Tribes of the Fort Hall Reservation1
Susanville Indian Rancheria, California1
Te-Moak Tribe of Western Shoshone Indians of Nevada1
Washoe Tribe of Nevada & California1
Yomba Shoshone Tribe of the Yomba Reservation, Nevada1

Institutions reported Native American remains taken from 25 counties in Utah.

CountyRemains Taken From County Not Made Available for ReturnRemains Made Available for Return% of Remains Made Available for Return
San Juan County79922822%
Iron County1094931%
Grand County781011%
Salt Lake County4712%
Sevier County441120%
Uintah County404050%
Utah County39613%
Weber County321024%
Tooele County17315%
Carbon County12425%
Emery County121250%
Washington County112166%
Garfield County104180%
Kane County101560%
Millard County101050%
Box Elder County71365%
Wayne County7222%
Davis County6114%
Juab County600%
Wasatch County500%
Duchesne County200%
Sanpete County2133%
Summit County200%
Daggett County100%
Beaver County01100%
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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