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The Repatriation Database Data from Nov. 29, 2023

Zuni Tribe of the Zuni Reservation, New Mexico

A federally recognized Indian tribe with headquarters in New Mexico

Institutions reported making the remains of more than 15,600 Native Americans available for return to the Zuni Tribe.

The tribe was also eligible to claim more than 94,500 associated funerary objects.

Institutions continue to hold the remains of at least 9,300 Native Americans taken from counties known to be of interest to the tribe.*

Where Native American remains made available for return to the Zuni Tribe 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 367 Native Americans with no location information were made available for return to the Zuni Tribe.
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 56 institutions made Native American remains available for return to the Zuni Tribe.

InstitutionRemains Made Available for Return To Tribe
U.S. Department of the Interior7,089
U.S. Department of Agriculture3,935
University of Arizona, Arizona State Museum1,709
History Colorado513
S'edav Va'aki Museum359
University of Colorado Museum322
New Mexico State Univ. Museum + U.S. Dept. of Interior + U.S. Dept. of Agriculture +288
School for Advanced Research263
University of Minnesota, Twin Cities198
Salmon Ruins Museum194
Denver Museum of Nature and Science95
Fort Lewis College91
Museum of Northern Arizona88
Field Museum64
Museum of New Mexico, Museum of Indian Arts and Culture62
Animas Museum61
University of California, Los Angeles, Fowler Museum of Cultural History51
Brigham Young University, Museum of Peoples and Cultures39
Colorado College26
American Museum of Natural History17
University of Denver, Museum of Anthropology17
Harvard University16
Utah State University, Eastern Prehistoric Museum16
Arizona State University, School of Human Evolution and Social Change15
Indiana University15
Cochise College14
Robert S. Peabody Institute of Archaeology, Phillips Academy13
Heard Museum7
Michigan State University7
Albuquerque Museum6
Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History6
Arizona State Land Department5
Pomona College, Montgomery Gallery5
Texas A and M University5
University of Iowa, Office of the State Archaeologist5
Vassar College5
Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum4
Colorado Bureau of Investigation3
Milwaukee Public Museum3
University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Department of Anthropology2
University of Texas at Austin, Texas Archeological Research Laboratory2
Artesia Historical Museum and Art Center1
Brooklyn Museum1
California Department of Parks and Recreation1
Central Michigan University, Museum of Cultural and Natural History1
College of Southern Idaho1
Denver Art Museum1
Fort Collins Museum of Discovery1
Museum of Riverside1
Pacific Lutheran University1
Palo Alto Junior Museum and Zoo1
Pima County Office of the Medical Examiner1
U.S. Department of Defense1
University of Maine1
University of South Florida1
Wisconsin Historical Society1

Timeline of Native American remains made available for return to the Zuni Tribe

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 9,300 Native Americans that were taken from counties known to be of interest to the Zuni Tribe.

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 Arizona2,007
Dept. of the Interior1,398
BIA (1,015)
Utah State Office (208)
New Mexico State Office (106)
Navajo NM (69)
Harvard Univ.1,272
American Museum of Natural History1,042
Arizona State Univ.774
Museum of New Mexico, Museum of Indian Arts and Culture668
Dept. of Agriculture539
Santa Fe NF (258)
Tonto NF (85)
Gila NF (80)
Lincoln NF (45)
Prescott NF (34)
Carson NF (15)
Cibola NF (8)
Coconino NF (6)
Fishlake NF (6)
Apache-Sitgreaves NF (1)
Coronado NF (1)
Field Museum471
Natural History Museum of Utah186
Univ. of California, Berkeley147
Museum of Texas Tech Univ.123
Utah Dept. of Natural Resources65
Edge of the Cedars and Goosenecks State Park (46)
Utah Field House of Natural History State Park (19)
Museum of Western Colorado53
Beloit College52
Southern Utah Univ. Archeological Repository51
Univ. of Michigan51
Univ. of New Mexico47
Trinidad State Junior College46
Carlsbad Museum35
New Mexico Highlands Univ.35
Fort Lewis College30
Western Colorado Univ.29
Univ. of Texas, El Paso23
Dept. of Defense21
Fort Bliss (16)
White Sands Missile Range (4)
National Museum of Health and Medicine (1)
Univ. of Texas at Austin20
Eastern Arizona College Foundation16
Los Angeles County Natural History Museum16
Southern Illinois Univ., Carbondale13
New Mexico State Univ. Museum12
Ohio History Connection12
Brigham Young Univ.11
Carnegie Museum of Natural History10
Milwaukee Public Museum9
Museum of Northern Arizona9
Dartmouth College7
Univ. of Nebraska State Museum7
Univ. of Pennsylvania7
Illinois State Museum6
Univ. of Kansas6
Sul Ross State Univ.5
West Texas A and M Univ.5
Wichita State Univ.5
Univ. of Minnesota, Duluth4
Wisconsin Historical Society4
Hastings Museum3
Peabody Essex Museum3
Rocky Ford Historical Museum3
Univ. of Oklahoma3
Artesia Historical Museum and Art Center2
Bowers Museum2
Brown Univ.2
Cleveland Museum of Natural History2
Minnesota Indian Affairs Council2
Univ. of Wyoming2
Yale Univ.2
Brooklyn Museum1
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
Kansas City Museum1
Maine Historical Society1
Missouri Historical Society1
No Man's Land Historical Society1
Putnam Museum1
Rochester Museum and Science Center1
Rutgers Univ.1
S'edav Va'aki Museum1
Saint Martin's Univ. Waynick Museum1
San Bernardino County Museum1
Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History1
Texas Parks and Wildlife1
Texas State Univ.1
Univ. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill1
Univ. of Vermont1
Utah State Univ.1
Western New Mexico Univ. Museum1
Counties of interest used in estimate include: Apache, Cochise, Coconino, Gila, Graham, Greenlee, La Paz, Maricopa, Navajo, Pima, Pinal, Santa Cruz, Yavapai and Yuma in Arizona. Adams, Archuleta, Conejos, Costilla, Crowley, Denver, Dolores, Huerfano, Jefferson, Kiowa, La Plata, Las Animas, Mesa, Moffat, Montezuma, Montrose, Pueblo, San Juan and Weld in Colorado. Culberson in Texas. Box Elder, Carbon, Emery, Garfield, Grand, Iron, Kane, San Juan, Sevier, Uintah and Washington 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