Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes Repatriation Records — NAGPRA Database

The Repatriation Database Data from Nov. 29, 2023

Where Native American remains made available for return to the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes 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

Note: Remains of 257 Native Americans with no location information were made available for return to the Cheyenne and Arapaho 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.

These 32 institutions made Native American remains available for return to the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes.

Institution	Remains Made Available for Return To Tribe
History Nebraska	588
History Colorado	478
U.S. Department of Defense	97
University of Wyoming	55
University of Colorado Museum	50
University of Denver, Museum of Anthropology	38
University of Northern Colorado	31
Denver Museum of Nature and Science	25
University of Iowa, Office of the State Archaeologist	21
U.S. Department of the Interior	20
Pittsburg State University	19
Fort Collins Museum of Discovery	18
Colorado College	11
Harvard University	11
Chadron State College	8
Columbia University, Department of Anthropology	4
Field Museum	4
Kansas State Historical Society	4
U.S. Department of Agriculture	4
Yale University, Peabody Museum of Natural History	4
Colorado Bureau of Investigation	3
Heard Museum	2
Pioneer Historical Society of Bent County	2
University of Oklahoma	2
American Museum of Natural History	1
Baylor University, Mayborn Museum Complex	1
Buffalo Bill Center of the West	1
Illinois State Museum	1
Missouri Historical Society	1
Putnam Museum	1
University of Maine	1
University of Nebraska State Museum	1

Timeline of Native American remains made available for return to the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes

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 4,000 Native Americans that were taken from counties known to be of interest to the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes.

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.

Institution	Remains Not Made Available for Return That Were Taken From Counties of Interest to the Tribe
Univ. of Oklahoma	2,207 Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History (2,188) Oklahoma Archeological Survey (19)
Univ. of Kansas	345
Kansas State Historical Society	276
Harvard Univ.	235
Dept. of Defense	223 Tulsa District (207) Omaha District (11) National Museum of Health and Medicine (3) Kansas City District (2)
Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville	137
Dept. of the Interior	99 Reclamation, Great Plains Region, Nebraska-Kansas Area Office (56) Wyoming State Office (17) Sherburne National Wildlife Refuge (15) BIA (5) Reclamation, Great Plains Region, Wyoming Area Office (3) Voyageurs NP (3)
American Museum of Natural History	82
Minnesota Indian Affairs Council	77
Trinidad State Junior College	46
South Dakota State Historical Society, State Archaeological Research Center	44
Univ. of Minnesota, Duluth	38
Univ. of Wyoming	29
Western Colorado Univ.	25
Fort Lewis College	21
Gilcrease Museum	17
Hastings Museum	15
History Nebraska	13
Univ. of Michigan	13
Wichita State Univ.	10
Kansas State Univ.	8
No Man's Land Historical Society	7
Univ. of Arizona	7
Univ. of North Texas	6
Goodhue County Historical Society	5
Houston Museum of Natural Science	5
Univ. of Nebraska State Museum	5
San Bernardino County Museum	4
Buffalo Bill Center of the West	3
Illinois State Museum	3
Museum of Texas Tech Univ.	3
Tioga Point Museum	3
West Texas A and M Univ.	3
Goshen College	2
Minnesota Historical Society	2
New York Univ.	2
Southern Illinois Univ., Carbondale	2
Stuhr Museum of the Prairie Pioneer	2
Dept. of Agriculture	2
Univ. of Kentucky	2
Carnegie Museum of Natural History	1
Cass County Historical Society Museum	1
Cleveland Museum of Natural History	1
Denver Museum of Nature and Science	1
Field Museum	1
Florida State Univ.	1
Grand Rapids Public Museum	1
Kansas City Museum	1
Meeteetse Museum	1
Natural History Museum of Utah	1
Univ. of Arkansas	1
Univ. of California, Berkeley	1
Univ. of California, Riverside	1
Univ. of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign	1
Univ. of Memphis	1
Univ. of Tulsa	1
Utah Dept. of Natural Resources	1

Counties of interest used in estimate include: Kings in California. Adams, Alamosa, Arapahoe, Baca, Bent, Boulder, Chaffee, Cheyenne, Clear Creek, Crowley, Custer, Denver, Douglas, El Paso, Elbert, Fremont, Gilpin, Grand, Huerfano, Jackson, Jefferson, Kiowa, Kit Carson, La Plata, Lake, Larimer, Las Animas, Lincoln, Logan, Mesa, Moffat, Morgan, Otero, Park, Phillips, Prowers, Pueblo, Saguache, Sedgwick, Summit, Teller, Washington, Weld and Yuma in Colorado. Allen, Anderson, Atchison, Barber, Barton, Bourbon, Brown, Butler, Chase, Chautauqua, Cherokee, Cheyenne, Clark, Clay, Cloud, Coffey, Comanche, Cowley, Crawford, Decatur, Dickinson, Doniphan, Douglas, Edwards, Elk, Ellis, Ellsworth, Finney, Ford, Franklin, Geary, Gove, Graham, Grant, Gray, Greeley, Greenwood, Hamilton, Harper, Harvey, Haskell, Hodgeman, Jackson, Jefferson, Jewell, Johnson, Kearny, Kingman, Kiowa, Labette, Lane, Leavenworth, Lincoln, Linn, Logan, Lyon, Marion, Marshall, Mcpherson, Meade, Miami, Mitchell, Montgomery, Morris, Morton, Nemaha, Neosho, Ness, Norton, Osage, Osborne, Ottawa, Pawnee, Phillips, Pottawatomie, Pratt, Rawlins, Reno, Republic, Rice, Riley, Rooks, Rush, Russell, Saline, Scott, Sedgwick, Seward, Shawnee, Sheridan, Sherman, Smith, Stafford, Stanton, Stevens, Sumner, Thomas, Trego, Wabaunsee, Wallace, Washington, Wichita, Wilson, Woodson and Wyandotte in Kansas. Aitkin, Anoka, Becker, Beltrami, Benton, Big Stone, Blue Earth, Brown, Carlton, Carver, Cass, Chippewa, Chisago, Clay, Clearwater, Cook, Cottonwood, Crow Wing, Dakota, Dodge, Douglas, Faribault, Fillmore, Freeborn, Goodhue, Grant, Hennepin, Houston, Hubbard, Isanti, Itasca, Jackson, Kanabec, Kandiyohi, Kittson, Koochiching, Lac Qui Parle, Lake, Lake Of The Woods, Le Sueur, Lincoln, Lyon, Mahnomen, Marshall, Martin, Mcleod, Meeker, Mille Lacs, Morrison, Mower, Murray, Nicollet, Nobles, Norman, Olmsted, Otter Tail, Pennington, Pine, Pipestone, Polk, Pope, Ramsey, Red Lake, Redwood, Renville, Rice, Rock, Roseau, Scott, Sherburne, Sibley, St. Louis, Stearns, Steele, Stevens, Swift, Todd, Traverse, Wabasha, Wadena, Waseca, Washington, Watonwan, Wilkin, Winona, Wright and Yellow Medicine in Minnesota. Adams, Antelope, Arthur, Banner, Blaine, Boone, Box Butte, Boyd, Brown, Buffalo, Burt, Butler, Cass, Cedar, Chase, Cherry, Cheyenne, Clay, Colfax, Cuming, Custer, Dakota, Dawes, Dawson, Deuel, Dixon, Dodge, Douglas, Dundy, Fillmore, Franklin, Frontier, Furnas, Gage, Garden, Garfield, Gosper, Grant, Greeley, Hall, Hamilton, Harlan, Hayes, Hitchcock, Holt, Hooker, Howard, Jefferson, Johnson, Kearney, Keith, Keya Paha, Kimball, Knox, Lancaster, Lincoln, Logan, Loup, Madison, Mcpherson, Merrick, Morrill, Nance, Nemaha, Nuckolls, Otoe, Pawnee, Perkins, Phelps, Pierce, Platte, Polk, Red Willow, Richardson, Rock, Saline, Sarpy, Saunders, Scotts Bluff, Seward, Sheridan, Sherman, Sioux, Stanton, Thayer, Thomas, Thurston, Valley, Washington, Wayne, Webster, Wheeler and York in Nebraska. Adair, Alfalfa, Atoka, Beaver, Beckham, Blaine, Bryan, Caddo, Canadian, Carter, Cherokee, Choctaw, Cimarron, Cleveland, Coal, Comanche, Cotton, Craig, Creek, Custer, Delaware, Dewey, Ellis, Garfield, Garvin, Grady, Grant, Greer, Harmon, Harper, Haskell, Hughes, Jackson, Jefferson, Johnston, Kay, Kingfisher, Kiowa, Latimer, Le Flore, Lincoln, Logan, Love, Major, Marshall, Mayes, Mcclain, Mccurtain, Mcintosh, Murray, Muskogee, Noble, Nowata, Okfuskee, Oklahoma, Okmulgee, Osage, Ottawa, Pawnee, Payne, Pittsburg, Pontotoc, Pottawatomie, Pushmataha, Roger Mills, Rogers, Seminole, Sequoyah, Stephens, Texas, Tillman, Tulsa, Wagoner, Washington, Washita, Woods and Woodward in Oklahoma. Mitchell in Texas. Albany, Big Horn, Campbell, Carbon, Converse, Crook, Fremont, Goshen, Hot Springs, Johnson, Laramie, Lincoln, Natrona, Niobrara, Park, Platte, Sheridan, Sublette, Sweetwater, Teton, Uinta, Washakie and Weston in Wyoming

Search for institutions holding Native American remains and tribes seeking to reclaim them

Try the University of California, Berkeley, the Chickasaw Nation or Arizona.

Institutions that have not submitted information to the federal government are not listed.

These tribes were also listed when institutions culturally affiliated Native American remains to the Cheyenne and Arapaho 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.

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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

by Ash Ngu and Andrea Suozzo Jan. 11, 2023 Data from Nov. 29, 2023 Additional reporting by Asia Fields, Mary Hudetz and Logan Jaffe for ProPublica and Graham Brewer for NBC News. Additional development by Alec Glassford.