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The Repatriation Database Data from Nov. 29, 2023

Comanche Nation, Oklahoma

A federally recognized Indian tribe with headquarters in Oklahoma

Institutions reported making the remains of more than 1,900 Native Americans available for return to the Comanche Nation.

The tribe was also eligible to claim more than 19,200 associated funerary objects.

Institutions continue to hold the remains of at least 5,800 Native Americans taken from counties known to be of interest to the tribe.*

Where Native American remains made available for return to the Comanche Nation 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
Swipe interaction icon
Note: Remains of 331 Native Americans with no location information were made available for return to the Comanche Nation.
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 29 institutions made Native American remains available for return to the Comanche Nation.

InstitutionRemains Made Available for Return To Tribe
History Nebraska586
History Colorado475
New Mexico State Univ. Museum + U.S. Dept. of Interior + U.S. Dept. of Agriculture +288
U.S. Department of Defense150
Baylor University, Mayborn Museum Complex61
University of Wyoming54
Texas A and M University48
University of Colorado Museum48
U.S. Department of the Interior39
University of Denver, Museum of Anthropology36
Denver Museum of Nature and Science33
Witte Museum32
University of Iowa, Office of the State Archaeologist21
Fort Collins Museum of Discovery18
Harvard University16
Texas Parks and Wildlife16
U.S. Department of State16
Colorado College11
Southern Methodist University10
Chadron State College8
University of Texas at Austin, Texas Archeological Research Laboratory6
Colorado Bureau of Investigation3
New York University, College of Dentistry2
Dalton State College1
Kerr County1
Mabee-Gerrer Museum of Art1
U.S. Department of Agriculture1
U.S. Department of Justice1
University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology1

Timeline of Native American remains made available for return to the Comanche Nation

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 5,800 Native Americans that were taken from counties known to be of interest to the Comanche Nation.

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 Texas at Austin1,781
Museum of New Mexico, Museum of Indian Arts and Culture566
Dept. of Agriculture361
Santa Fe NF (258)
Lincoln NF (45)
Gila NF (36)
Carson NF (11)
Cibola NF (8)
Rio Grande NF (2)
Apache-Sitgreaves NF (1)
Dept. of the Interior339
BIA (155)
New Mexico State Office (103)
Amistad NRA (60)
Wyoming State Office (17)
Reclamation, Great Plains Region, Wyoming Area Office (3)
Reclamation, Great Plains Region, Nebraska-Kansas Area Office (1)
Museum of Texas Tech Univ.336
Univ. of Texas at San Antonio289
Harvard Univ.288
Field Museum278
West Texas A and M Univ.273
American Museum of Natural History185
Dept. of Defense134
Fort Worth District (73)
Fort Bliss (55)
White Sands Missile Range (4)
National Museum of Health and Medicine (1)
Omaha District (1)
Univ. of Oklahoma95
Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History (83)
Oklahoma Archeological Survey (12)
Texas State Univ.66
Univ. of Arizona64
Univ. of Michigan63
Univ. of New Mexico56
Trinidad State Junior College48
Brazos Valley Museum of Natural History39
Carlsbad Museum35
New Mexico Highlands Univ.35
Univ. of the Incarnate Word32
Sul Ross State Univ.30
Witte Museum29
Western Colorado Univ.25
Univ. of Texas, El Paso23
Kansas State Historical Society22
Univ. of California, Berkeley22
Fort Lewis College21
Univ. of Wyoming21
Beloit College19
Houston Museum of Natural Science18
Univ. of Kansas18
Texas Parks and Wildlife17
Univ. of Nebraska State Museum17
Texas A and M Univ.13
Dept. of Anthropology (8)
Commerce (5)
Ohio History Connection12
Hastings Museum11
No Man's Land Historical Society10
Univ. of California, Riverside10
Coryell County Sheriff's Dept.8
Texas Dept. of Transportation8
Texas Historical Commission8
Los Angeles County Natural History Museum7
Univ. of Pennsylvania7
Univ. of North Texas6
Univ. of Texas Permian Basin6
Milwaukee Public Museum5
Sul Ross State Univ.5
Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville5
Fort Concho NHL4
New Mexico State Univ. Museum4
Univ. of Minnesota, Duluth4
Buffalo Bill Center of the West3
Illinois State Museum3
Nassau County Dept. of Parks and Recreation3
Wichita State Univ.3
Artesia Historical Museum and Art Center2
Carnegie Museum of Natural History2
Dartmouth College2
Heard Museum2
San Bernardino County Museum2
Southern Illinois Univ., Carbondale2
Stuhr Museum of the Prairie Pioneer2
The Heritage Museum of the Texas Hill Country2
Univ. of Kentucky2
Brooklyn Museum1
Cass County Historical Society Museum1
Cleveland Museum of Natural History1
Denver Museum of Nature and Science1
Florida State Univ.1
Fort Worth Museum Science and History1
Grayson County Frontier Village Museum1
History Nebraska1
Hutchinson County Historical Museum1
Kansas City Museum1
Kansas State Univ.1
Meeteetse Museum1
Missouri Historical Society1
Museum of Us1
Natural History Museum of Utah1
Robert S. Peabody Institute of Archaeology1
Rochester Museum and Science Center1
Tioga Point Museum1
Univ. of Memphis1
Univ. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill1
Utah Dept. of Natural Resources1
Wichita County Sherriff's Office1
Yale Univ.1
Counties of interest used in estimate include: Apache in Arizona. Riverside in California. Adams, Alamosa, Arapahoe, Archuleta, Baca, Bent, Boulder, Broomfield, Chaffee, Cheyenne, Clear Creek, Conejos, Costilla, Crowley, Custer, Denver, Douglas, Eagle, El Paso, Elbert, Fremont, Gilpin, Grand, Gunnison, Hinsdale, Huerfano, Jackson, Jefferson, Kiowa, Kit Carson, La Plata, Lake, Larimer, Las Animas, Lincoln, Logan, Mesa, Mineral, Moffat, Morgan, Otero, Park, Phillips, Pitkin, Prowers, Pueblo, Rio Grande, Routt, Saguache, Sedgwick, Summit, Teller, Washington, Weld and Yuma in Colorado. Cheyenne, Clark, Finney, Ford, Gove, Grant, Gray, Greeley, Hamilton, Haskell, Kearny, Lane, Logan, Meade, Morton, Rawlins, Scott, Seward, Sherman, Stanton, Stevens, Thomas, Wallace and Wichita in Kansas. Adams, Antelope, Banner, Boone, Box Butte, Boyd, Burt, Cass, Cedar, Chase, Cherry, Cheyenne, Cuming, Custer, Dakota, Dawes, Dawson, Dixon, Dodge, Douglas, Dundy, Franklin, Frontier, Furnas, Gage, Garden, Garfield, Hall, Harlan, Hitchcock, Hooker, Howard, Keith, Keya Paha, Kimball, Knox, Lancaster, Lincoln, Mcpherson, Morrill, Nance, Nemaha, Platte, Red Willow, Richardson, Sarpy, Saunders, Scotts Bluff, Sherman, Sioux, Stanton, Thayer, Valley, Washington and Webster in Nebraska. Beaver, Beckham, Blaine, Caddo, Canadian, Cimarron, Comanche, Cotton, Custer, Dewey, Ellis, Grady, Greer, Harmon, Harper, Jackson, Jefferson, Kiowa, Major, Roger Mills, Stephens, Texas, Tillman, Washita and Woodward in Oklahoma. Anderson, Andrews, Aransas, Archer, Armstrong, Atascosa, Austin, Bailey, Bandera, Bastrop, Baylor, Bee, Bell, Bexar, Blanco, Borden, Bosque, Brazoria, Brazos, Brewster, Briscoe, Brooks, Brown, Burleson, Burnet, Caldwell, Calhoun, Callahan, Cameron, Carson, Castro, Childress, Clay, Cochran, Coke, Coleman, Collingsworth, Colorado, Comal, Comanche, Concho, Coryell, Cottle, Crane, Crockett, Crosby, Culberson, Dallam, Dallas, Dawson, Deaf Smith, Denton, Dewitt, Dickens, Dimmit, Donley, Duval, Eastland, Ector, Edwards, El Paso, Ellis, Erath, Falls, Fannin, Fayette, Fisher, Floyd, Foard, Fort Bend, Freestone, Frio, Gaines, Galveston, Garza, Gillespie, Glasscock, Goliad, Gonzales, Gray, Grayson, Grimes, Guadalupe, Hale, Hall, Hamilton, Hansford, Hardeman, Harris, Hartley, Haskell, Hays, Hemphill, Henderson, Hidalgo, Hill, Hockley, Hood, Houston, Howard, Hudspeth, Hunt, Hutchinson, Irion, Jack, Jackson, Jeff Davis, Jim Hogg, Jim Wells, Johnson, Jones, Karnes, Kaufman, Kendall, Kenedy, Kent, Kerr, Kimble, King, Kinney, Kleberg, Knox, La Salle, Lamb, Lampasas, Lavaca, Lee, Leon, Limestone, Lipscomb, Live Oak, Llano, Loving, Lubbock, Lynn, Madison, Martin, Mason, Matagorda, Maverick, Mcculloch, Mclennan, Mcmullen, Medina, Menard, Midland, Milam, Mills, Mitchell, Montague, Montgomery, Moore, Motley, Navarro, Nolan, Nueces, Ochiltree, Oldham, Palo Pinto, Parker, Parmer, Pecos, Potter, Presidio, Rains, Randall, Reagan, Real, Reeves, Refugio, Roberts, Robertson, Rockwall, Runnels, San Jacinto, San Patricio, San Saba, Schleicher, Scurry, Shackelford, Sherman, Somervell, Starr, Stephens, Sterling, Stonewall, Sutton, Swisher, Tarrant, Taylor, Terrell, Terry, Throckmorton, Tom Green, Travis, Trinity, Upton, Uvalde, Val Verde, Van Zandt, Victoria, Walker, Waller, Ward, Washington, Webb, Wharton, Wheeler, Wichita, Wilbarger, Willacy, Williamson, Wilson, Winkler, Wise, Yoakum, Young, Zapata and Zavala in Texas. Albany, Big Horn, Campbell, Carbon, Converse, Fremont, Goshen, Hot Springs, Johnson, Laramie, Lincoln, Natrona, Park, Platte, Sheridan, Sublette, Sweetwater, Teton, Uinta and Washakie in Wyoming
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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