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The Repatriation Database Data from Nov. 29, 2023

Jicarilla Apache Nation, New Mexico

A federally recognized Indian tribe with headquarters in New Mexico

Institutions reported making the remains of more than 600 Native Americans available for return to the Jicarilla Apache Nation.

The tribe was also eligible to claim more than 13,300 associated funerary objects.

Institutions continue to hold the remains of at least 4,400 Native Americans taken from counties known to be of interest to the tribe.*

Where Native American remains made available for return to the Jicarilla Apache 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 five Native Americans with no location information were made available for return to the Jicarilla Apache 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 20 institutions made Native American remains available for return to the Jicarilla Apache Nation.

InstitutionRemains Made Available for Return To Tribe
Salmon Ruins Museum194
U.S. Department of the Interior185
University of Colorado Museum48
U.S. Department of Defense47
University of Denver, Museum of Anthropology37
University of Northern Colorado29
Denver Museum of Nature and Science23
Fort Collins Museum of Discovery14
Colorado College11
Chadron State College8
Baylor University, Mayborn Museum Complex4
Animas Museum3
Colorado Bureau of Investigation3
Michigan State University3
Harvard University2
History Colorado2
Pejepscot Historical Society2
S'edav Va'aki Museum2
Texas A and M University2
Dayton Museum of Natural History1

Timeline of Native American remains made available for return to the Jicarilla Apache 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 4,400 Native Americans that were taken from counties known to be of interest to the Jicarilla Apache 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 Arizona1,328
Dept. of the Interior913
BIA (814)
New Mexico State Office (53)
Navajo NM (46)
Dept. of Agriculture441
Santa Fe NF (258)
Tonto NF (85)
Prescott NF (34)
Lincoln NF (32)
Carson NF (15)
Cibola NF (8)
Coconino NF (6)
Rio Grande NF (2)
Coronado NF (1)
American Museum of Natural History416
Museum of New Mexico, Museum of Indian Arts and Culture387
Harvard Univ.233
West Texas A and M Univ.231
Field Museum80
Museum of Texas Tech Univ.59
Trinidad State Junior College48
New Mexico Highlands Univ.35
Carlsbad Museum32
Univ. of Texas at Austin21
Univ. of Nebraska State Museum16
Southern Illinois Univ., Carbondale15
Sul Ross State Univ.14
Univ. of Michigan10
Fort Lewis College9
Los Angeles County Natural History Museum9
Museum of Northern Arizona9
Univ. of California, Berkeley9
No Man's Land Historical Society7
Beloit College5
Dartmouth College5
Milwaukee Public Museum5
Natural History Museum of Utah5
Witte Museum5
Western Colorado Univ.4
Eastern Arizona College Foundation3
Hastings Museum3
Nassau County Dept. of Parks and Recreation3
Univ. of Oklahoma3
Univ. of Pennsylvania3
Univ. of Texas, El Paso3
Wichita State Univ.3
Bowers Museum2
Illinois State Museum2
Rocky Ford Historical Museum2
Texas Dept. of Transportation2
Texas Parks and Wildlife2
Univ. of New Mexico2
Carnegie Museum of Natural History1
Cleveland Museum of Natural History1
Denver Museum of Nature and Science1
Elgin Public Museum1
Florida State Univ.1
Fort Concho NHL1
Grand Rapids Public Museum1
Grout Museum of History and Science1
Hutchinson County Historical Museum1
Minnesota Indian Affairs Council1
Missouri Historical Society1
Putnam Museum1
Robert S. Peabody Institute of Archaeology1
Rochester Museum and Science Center1
Saint Martin's Univ. Waynick Museum1
San Bernardino County Museum1
Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History1
Dept. of Defense1
Univ. of Minnesota, Duluth1
Univ. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill1
Univ. of Vermont1
Univ. of Wyoming1
Counties of interest used in estimate include: Cochise, Coconino, Gila, Graham, Pima, Santa Cruz and Yavapai in Arizona. Adams, Alamosa, Arapahoe, Baca, Boulder, Costilla, Crowley, Douglas, El Paso, Elbert, Fremont, Huerfano, Jefferson, Kiowa, Larimer, Las Animas, Lincoln, Logan, Montezuma, Morgan, Prowers, Pueblo, Saguache, Sedgwick, Weld and Yuma in Colorado. Cimarron in Oklahoma. Armstrong, Bailey, Brewster, Briscoe, Carson, Castro, Cochran, Collingsworth, Culberson, Dallam, Deaf Smith, Donley, Gray, Hale, Hansford, Hartley, Hemphill, Hockley, Hutchinson, Lamb, Lipscomb, Lubbock, Lynn, Mitchell, Moore, Ochiltree, Parmer, Potter, Randall, Roberts, Scurry, Sherman, Swisher, Terry, Wheeler and Yoakum in Texas.
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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