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The Repatriation Database Data from Nov. 29, 2023

Buena Vista Rancheria of Me-Wuk Indians of California

A federally recognized Indian tribe with headquarters in California

Institutions reported making the remains of more than 6,300 Native Americans available for return to the Buena Vista Rancheria of Me-Wuk Indians.

The tribe was also eligible to claim more than 125,700 associated funerary objects.

Institutions continue to hold the remains of at least 4,700 Native Americans taken from counties known to be of interest to the tribe.*

Where Native American remains made available for return to the Buena Vista Rancheria of Me-Wuk Indians were taken from

Each county is a peak
Height is amount of remains taken from county and made available by institutions for return to tribe
No remains taken from these counties made available for return to tribe
Institution that made remains available for return
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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.

These 18 institutions made Native American remains available for return to the Buena Vista Rancheria of Me-Wuk Indians.

InstitutionRemains Made Available for Return To Tribe
University of California, Berkeley4,612
California State University, Sacramento, Department of Anthropology771
California Department of Transportation508
California State University, Long Beach255
University of California, Davis57
California Department of Parks and Recreation28
University of the Pacific21
State Center Community College District - Reedly College18
University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Department of Anthropology11
New York University, College of Dentistry4
U.S. Department of the Interior4
Autry Museum of the American West3
Beloit College, Logan Museum of Anthropology3
State Center Community College District - Fresno City College2
University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Department of Anthropology2
Michigan State University1
Nevada State Museum1
University of Oregon Museum of Natural and Cultural History1

Timeline of Native American remains made available for return to the Buena Vista Rancheria of Me-Wuk Indians

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.

These institutions have not made available for return the remains of at least 4,700 Native Americans that were taken from counties known to be of interest to the Buena Vista Rancheria of Me-Wuk Indians.

These are estimates calculated using remains not made available for return from counties that the tribe has previously been eligible to claim remains from, as well as counties that the tribe has indicated interest in to the federal government. They are not comprehensive figures. The tribe may not wish to claim the remains, and other tribes may also seek to claim them.
InstitutionRemains Not Made Available for Return That Were Taken From Counties of Interest to the Tribe
Univ. of California, Berkeley2,938
San Jose State Univ.426
San Francisco State Univ.338
Sonoma State Univ.267
Dept. of Agriculture99
Stanislaus NF (88)
Sierra NF (11)
Univ. of California, Davis96
California Dept. of Parks and Recreation94
Filoli Center85
Cal. State, Easy Bay66
Cal. State, Sacramento50
Harvard Univ.48
Foothill-De Anza Community College District35
Nevada State Museum21
Dept. of Defense21
Naval Air Station, Fallon (2)
National Museum of Health and Medicine (1)
California Dept. of Transportation19
East Bay Municipal Utility District19
Oakland Museum of California11
de Young Museum9
Rochester Museum and Science Center9
Los Angeles County Natural History Museum7
San Mateo County Community College District7
Univ. of Pennsylvania5
San Bernardino County Museum4
Dept. of the Interior4
Lake Mead NRA (1)
Nevada State Office (1)
Reclamation, Lower Colorado Region (1)
Stillwater National Wildlife Refuge (1)
West Valley College4
Field Museum3
Hastings Museum3
Los Rios Community College District3
Santa Clara Univ.3
Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History3
American Museum of Natural History2
Grand Rapids Public Museum2
Klamath County Museum2
Nassau County Dept. of Parks and Recreation2
Natural History Museum of Utah2
Robert S. Peabody Institute of Archaeology2
Univ. of Akron2
Yale Univ.2
City of Santa Clara, Headen-Inman House1
Diablo Valley College1
Illinois State Museum1
Missouri Historical Society1
Palo Alto Junior Museum and Zoo1
Peabody Essex Museum1
Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History1
Univ. of California, Los Angeles1
Univ. of California, Riverside1
Univ. of Nevada, Las Vegas1
Univ. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill1
Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville1
Counties of interest used in estimate include: Alameda, Amador, Calaveras, Contra Costa, El Dorado, Fresno, Kings, Merced, Placer, Sacramento, San Francisco, San Joaquin, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Tuolumne and Yolo in California. Churchill, Clark, Lincoln, Nye, Washoe and White Pine in Nevada.
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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