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The Repatriation Database Data from Jan. 6, 2025

Tonto Apache Tribe of Arizona

A federally recognized Indian tribe with headquarters in Arizona

Institutions reported making the remains of more than 300 Native Americans available for return to the Tonto Apache Tribe of Arizona.

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

Institutions continue to hold the remains of at least 4,000 Native Americans taken from counties known to be of interest to the tribe.*

Where Native American remains made available for return to the Tonto Apache Tribe of Arizona 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 Tonto Apache Tribe of Arizona.
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 Tonto Apache Tribe of Arizona.

InstitutionRemains Made Available for Return To Tribe
U.S. Department of the Interior166
University of Arizona, Arizona State Museum68
Denver Museum of Nature and Science19
Cochise College14
University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Department of Anthropology11
Baylor University, Mayborn Museum Complex4
Michigan State University3
Arizona Capitol Museum2
Brown University, Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology2
Harvard University2
History Colorado2
Pejepscot Historical Society2
S'edav Va'aki Museum2
Dayton Museum of Natural History1
Fort Collins Museum of Discovery1
Grand Rapids Public Museum1
Princeton University1
San Bernardino County Museum1
University of Colorado Museum1
University of Denver, Museum of Anthropology1

Timeline of Native American remains made available for return to the Tonto Apache Tribe of Arizona

Tribal and institutional capacity, funding, staffing, regulatory changes, audits, Review Committee decisions and litigation may influence timelines. Under NAGPRA, institutions make Native American remains available for return and determine whether they are culturally affiliated using evidence such as tribal traditional knowledge and biological and archaeological links. From 2010 to 2024, remains could also be returned through disposition based on geographic affiliation. Institutions can also determine that remains are culturally unidentifiable. Tribes may request the transfer of these remains, or they may be reinterred by the institution.

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 Tonto Apache Tribe of Arizona.

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 Arizona1,645
Arizona State Univ.773
Dept. of the Interior739
BIA (707)
New Mexico State Office (32)
Harvard Univ.332
Dept. of Agriculture150
Tonto NF (74)
Prescott NF (37)
Lincoln NF (32)
Coconino NF (6)
Coronado NF (1)
West Texas A and M Univ.93
American Museum of Natural History77
Field Museum47
Carlsbad Museum29
Museum of New Mexico, Museum of Indian Arts and Culture17
Univ. of Nebraska State Museum17
Southern Illinois Univ., Carbondale13
Sul Ross State Univ.11
Museum of Texas Tech Univ.10
Beloit College8
Museum of Northern Arizona8
Univ. of California, Berkeley8
Hastings Museum5
Natural History Museum of Utah5
Witte Museum5
Dartmouth College4
Western Colorado Univ.4
Eastern Arizona College Foundation3
Los Angeles County Natural History Museum3
Nassau County Dept. of Parks and Recreation3
Univ. of Texas, El Paso3
Wichita State Univ.3
Bowers Museum2
New York Univ.2
Rocky Ford Historical Museum2
Trinidad State Junior College2
Grand Rapids Public Museum1
Grout Museum of History and Science1
Hutchinson County Historical Museum1
Illinois State Museum1
Minnesota Indian Affairs Council1
Putnam Museum1
Rochester Museum and Science Center1
S'edav Va'aki Museum1
Saint Martin's Univ. Waynick Museum1
Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History1
Dept. of Defense1
Univ. of Kansas1
Univ. of Michigan1
Univ. of New Mexico1
Univ. of Pennsylvania1
Univ. of Texas at Austin1
Counties of interest used in estimate include: Cochise, Coconino, Gila, Graham, Maricopa, Pima, Santa Cruz and Yavapai in Arizona. Montezuma in Colorado. Brewster, Hutchinson, Randall and Scurry 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