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The Repatriation Database Data from Nov. 29, 2023

Texas

Institutions reported making 26% of the more than 4,400 Native American remains taken from Texas available for return to tribes under NAGPRA.

remains of 1,184 Native Americans made available for return to tribes
remains of at least 3,302 Native Americans not made available for return

There are 40 institutions located in Texas that reported Native American remains taken from across the country.

InstitutionRemains Not Made Available for ReturnRemains Made Available for Return% of Remains Made Available for Return
University of Texas at Austin, Texas Archeological Research Laboratory1,90534115%
Museum of Texas Tech University37700%
West Texas A and M University, Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum36200%
University of Texas at San Antonio, Center for Archaeological Research29431%
U.S. Department of Defense1756126%
Texas State University11476%
U.S. Department of the Interior607756%
University of Texas, El Paso, Centennial Museum4700%
Witte Museum403244%
Brazos Valley Museum of Natural History3900%
Texas A and M University3311277%
University of the Incarnate Word3200%
Sul Ross State University, Museum of the Big Bend3100%
Houston Museum of Natural Science2600%
Texas Parks and Wildlife171750%
Texas Historical Commission1000%
Coryell County Sheriff's Department800%
Texas Department of Transportation813895%
University of Texas Permian Basin700%
Fort Concho NHL600%
University of North Texas600%
Layland Museum500%
Sul Ross State University, Center for Big Bend Studies500%
Fort Worth Museum Science and History300%
The Heritage Museum of the Texas Hill Country200%
Grayson County Frontier Village Museum100%
Hutchinson County Historical Museum100%
Wichita County Sherriff's Office100%
Baylor University, Mayborn Museum Complex0105100%
County of Nacogdoches08100%
Dallas Water Utilities010100%
Gregg County Historical Museum051100%
Kerr County01100%
Rice University, Department of Anthropology05100%
Sabine River Authority of Texas01100%
Southern Methodist University0387100%
Stephen F. Austin State University042100%
Texarkana Museums System03100%
U.S. Department of Justice01100%
U.S. Department of State016100%

There are 65 institutions that reported Native American remains taken from Texas.

InstitutionRemains Not Made Available for ReturnRemains Made Available for Return% of Remains Made Available for Return
University of Texas at Austin, Texas Archeological Research Laboratory1,86333115%
University of Texas at San Antonio, Center for Archaeological Research28910%
West Texas A and M University, Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum26800%
Museum of Texas Tech University24200%
U.S. Department of Defense1586629%
Texas State University6779%
U.S. Department of the Interior607756%
Harvard University5700%
Brazos Valley Museum of Natural History3900%
University of the Incarnate Word3200%
Sul Ross State University, Museum of the Big Bend3000%
Witte Museum293252%
Houston Museum of Natural Science1800%
Texas A and M University1610487%
Texas Parks and Wildlife161752%
American Museum of Natural History1300%
Texas Historical Commission1000%
Coryell County Sheriff's Department800%
Nassau County Department of Parks and Recreation800%
Texas Department of Transportation813895%
University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology700%
University of New Mexico, Maxwell Museum of Anthropology600%
University of Texas Permian Basin600%
Sul Ross State University, Center for Big Bend Studies500%
University of Oklahoma500%
University of Texas, El Paso, Centennial Museum500%
Fort Concho NHL400%
No Man's Land Historical Society400%
University of Alabama Museums400%
Carlsbad Museum3667%
Robert S. Peabody Institute of Archaeology, Phillips Academy300%
Fort Worth Museum Science and History200%
Heard Museum200%
The Heritage Museum of the Texas Hill Country200%
Benton County Historical Society100%
Carnegie Museum of Natural History100%
Grayson County Frontier Village Museum100%
Grout Museum of History and Science100%
Hutchinson County Historical Museum100%
Indiana University100%
Milwaukee Public Museum100%
Rochester Museum and Science Center100%
University of Arizona, Arizona State Museum100%
University of Michigan Museum of Anthropology100%
University of Nebraska State Museum100%
Western Reserve Historical Society100%
Wichita County Sherriff's Office100%
Baylor University, Mayborn Museum Complex080100%
County of Nacogdoches08100%
Dallas Water Utilities010100%
Dalton State College01100%
Denver Museum of Nature and Science02100%
Gregg County Historical Museum051100%
Kerr County01100%
Rice University, Department of Anthropology05100%
Sabine River Authority of Texas01100%
Southern Methodist University0171100%
Stephen F. Austin State University042100%
Texarkana Museums System03100%
U.S. Department of Justice01100%
U.S. Department of State016100%
University of Colorado Museum07100%
University of Denver, Museum of Anthropology02100%
University of Southern Mississippi, Department of Anthropology and Sociology03100%
University of Wyoming01100%
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.

Institutions made Native American remains taken from Texas available for return to 38 tribes.

Institutions often make remains available for return to multiple tribes, so the amount of remains listed below may be counted for more than one tribe.
TribeRemains Made Available for Return to Tribe
Caddo Nation of Oklahoma737
Comanche Nation, Oklahoma264
Wichita and Affiliated Tribes (Wichita, Keechi, Waco and Tawakonie), Oklahoma247
Tonkawa Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma235
Mescalero Apache Tribe of the Mescalero Reservation, New Mexico176
Kiowa Indian Tribe of Oklahoma144
Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma58
Kickapoo Tribe of Oklahoma52
Apache Tribe of Oklahoma42
Tunica-Biloxi Indian Tribe37
Ysleta del Sur Pueblo36
Fort Sill Apache Tribe of Oklahoma27
Jicarilla Apache Nation, New Mexico26
Institution could not determine a culturally affiliated tribe and remains were transferred or reinterred according to state or other law25
Pueblo of Isleta, New Mexico25
San Carlos Apache Tribe of the San Carlos Reservation, Arizona24
White Mountain Apache Tribe of the Fort Apache Reservation, Arizona24
Tonto Apache Tribe of Arizona14
Hopi Tribe of Arizona10
Pueblo of Zia, New Mexico10
Zuni Tribe of the Zuni Reservation, New Mexico10
Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana8
Absentee-Shawnee Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma7
Eastern Shoshone Tribe of the Wind River Reservation, Wyoming7
Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas7
Kickapoo Tribe of Indians of the Kickapoo Reservation in Kansas7
Pueblo of Acoma, New Mexico7
Delaware Nation, Oklahoma5
Yavapai-Apache Nation of the Camp Verde Indian Reservation, Arizona5
Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas4
Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation, Arizona4
Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes, Oklahoma2
Muscogee (Creek) Nation2
Northern Arapaho Tribe of the Wind River Reservation, Wyoming2
Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma1
Lineal Descendant1
Miakan-Garza Band of the Coahuiltecan people1
Navajo Nation, Arizona, New Mexico and Utah1

Institutions reported Native American remains taken from 197 counties in Texas.

CountyRemains Taken From County Not Made Available for ReturnRemains Made Available for Return% of Remains Made Available for Return
Nueces County26852%
Austin County26400%
Live Oak County19211%
Victoria County18600%
Val Verde County1793215%
Galveston County13000%
Williamson County10811%
Coryell County891514%
Travis County7900%
Hutchinson County7345%
Goliad County7000%
Bexar County6800%
Fort Bend County6000%
Bell County569463%
Kerr County5623%
Taylor County5500%
Harris County5435%
El Paso County491625%
Jones County4300%
Karnes County4100%
Chambers County4000%
Kleberg County3900%
Colorado County3800%
Wharton County3413%
Collin County3313%
Young County3200%
Culberson County292243%
Potter County294661%
Crosby County28310%
Hidalgo County2500%
Orange County2500%
Presidio County2527%
Randall County2514%
Aransas County22724%
Cameron County2214%
Denton County2200%
Roberts County2200%
Uvalde County2200%
Brewster County21930%
San Patricio County2000%
Kinney County18210%
Jeff Davis County1600%
Robertson County1600%
Jefferson County1500%
Milam County142160%
Oldham County1300%
Rockwall County131043%
Burnet County1200%
Collingsworth County1200%
Gray County1200%
Andrews County1100%
Lubbock County1019%
McLennan County102974%
Briscoe County900%
Floyd County900%
San Saba County900%
Fayette County800%
Moore County8953%
Shackelford County800%
Carson County700%
Edwards County700%
McCulloch County700%
Zavala County700%
Bastrop County600%
Comal County600%
Dimmit County600%
Ellis County600%
Fannin County600%
Gaines County600%
Hansford County600%
Hemphill County600%
Hunt County6225%
Llano County600%
Navarro County62279%
Terrell County600%
Armstrong County500%
Bailey County500%
Calhoun County500%
Childress County500%
Coke County500%
Coleman County500%
Donley County500%
Ector County500%
Hill County5338%
Lynn County500%
Refugio County57193%
Cochran County400%
Concho County400%
Dallas County41275%
Dawson County400%
Liberty County400%
Lipscomb County400%
Matagorda County4969%
Nolan County4233%
Red River County49496%
Swisher County400%
Bandera County300%
Bosque County3125%
Clay County300%
Crane County300%
Dallam County300%
Deaf Smith County300%
Hall County300%
Hockley County300%
Kimble County300%
Lampasas County3125%
Limestone County300%
Martin County300%
Menard County300%
Mitchell County3350%
Motley County300%
Schleicher County300%
Starr County300%
Stephens County300%
Tom Green County300%
Ward County300%
Webb County300%
Brown County200%
Burleson County2675%
Caldwell County200%
Cottle County200%
Crockett County2133%
Dickens County200%
Fisher County2133%
Hartley County200%
Hays County2778%
Leon County2360%
Ochiltree County200%
Reeves County2133%
Scurry County2250%
Sutton County200%
Tarrant County2133%
Wheeler County200%
Wilbarger County200%
Willacy County200%
Archer County100%
Brazoria County1788%
Brazos County100%
Callahan County100%
Castro County100%
Erath County1150%
Freestone County12796%
Frio County100%
Garza County100%
Grayson County100%
Grimes County100%
Guadalupe County100%
Hale County100%
Hood County1150%
Irion County100%
Jack County1375%
Kaufman County1150%
Knox County100%
McMullen County100%
Mason County100%
Palo Pinto County1150%
Pecos County100%
Reagan County100%
Rusk County1267%
San Jacinto County1480%
Walker County100%
Washington County100%
Wichita County100%
Yoakum County100%
Anderson County056100%
Bowie County032100%
Camp County036100%
Cass County041100%
Cherokee County049100%
Cooke County04100%
Delta County03100%
Falls County01100%
Franklin County04100%
Gregg County08100%
Hamilton County01100%
Harrison County022100%
Henderson County03100%
Hopkins County02100%
Hudspeth County02100%
Johnson County01100%
Lamar County0108100%
Montague County01100%
Morris County08100%
Nacogdoches County016100%
Polk County01100%
Real County017100%
Sabine County03100%
Shelby County02100%
Smith County05100%
Somervell County03100%
Stonewall County01100%
Titus County035100%
Upshur County027100%
Van Zandt County02100%
Wilson County03100%
Wood County09100%
Zapata County017100%
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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