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The Repatriation Database Data from Nov. 29, 2023

Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah

A federally recognized Indian tribe with headquarters in Utah

Institutions reported making the remains of more than 200 Native Americans available for return to the Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah.

The tribe was also eligible to claim more than 2,500 associated funerary objects.

Institutions continue to hold the remains of at least 2,400 Native Americans taken from counties known to be of interest to the tribe.*

Where Native American remains made available for return to the Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah 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 29 Native Americans with no location information were made available for return to the Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah.
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 14 institutions made Native American remains available for return to the Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah.

InstitutionRemains Made Available for Return To Tribe
University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Department of Anthropology72
U.S. Department of the Interior60
University of California, Los Angeles, Fowler Museum of Cultural History49
Denver Museum of Nature and Science39
Utah Department of Natural Resources13
Natural History Museum of Utah12
Field Museum4
Colorado Bureau of Investigation3
U.S. Department of Agriculture3
University of California, Berkeley3
California State University, Los Angeles2
Harvard University1
U.S. Department of Defense1
U.S. Department of Energy1

Timeline of Native American remains made available for return to the Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah

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 2,400 Native Americans that were taken from counties known to be of interest to the Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah.

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
American Museum of Natural History543
Harvard Univ.493
Dept. of the Interior312
Utah State Office (194)
Navajo NM (69)
BIA (42)
Lahontan National Fish Hatchery (3)
Lake Mead NRA (1)
Nevada State Office (1)
Reclamation, Lower Colorado Region (1)
Stillwater National Wildlife Refuge (1)
Univ. of California, Berkeley260
Natural History Museum of Utah226
Univ. of Arizona196
Field Museum106
Southern Utah Univ. Archeological Repository51
Trinidad State Junior College46
Utah Dept. of Natural Resources46
Nevada State Museum30
Los Angeles County Natural History Museum22
Brigham Young Univ.11
Dept. of Agriculture11
Fishlake NF (6)
Coconino NF (3)
Wasatch-Cache NF (2)
Carnegie Museum of Natural History8
Univ. of Pennsylvania5
Beloit College4
Eastern California Museum4
Museum of Northern Arizona4
Dept. of Defense4
National Museum of Health and Medicine (2)
Naval Air Station, Fallon (2)
Peabody Essex Museum3
California Dept. of Parks and Recreation2
Illinois State Museum2
Klamath County Museum2
Nassau County Dept. of Parks and Recreation2
Dartmouth College1
Denver Museum of Nature and Science1
Eastern Arizona College Foundation1
Florida State Univ.1
Grand Rapids Public Museum1
Lackawanna Historical Society1
Museum of New Mexico, Museum of Indian Arts and Culture1
Museum of Western Colorado1
Rocky Ford Historical Museum1
San Bernardino County Museum1
Univ. of California, Davis1
Univ. of Nevada, Las Vegas1
Univ. of New Mexico1
Univ. of Wyoming1
Utah State Univ.1
Counties of interest used in estimate include: Coconino, Mohave and Navajo in Arizona. Inyo, Mono and San Bernardino in California. Adams, Arapahoe, Crowley, Huerfano, Jefferson, Kiowa, Las Animas and Weld in Colorado. Churchill, Clark, Douglas, Lander, Lincoln, Nye, Pershing, Washoe and White Pine in Nevada. Beaver, Box Elder, Davis, Emery, Garfield, Iron, Kane, Millard, Piute, San Juan, Sanpete, Sevier, Tooele, Washington, Wayne and Weber in Utah.
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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