Arizona BLM Returns Looted Native Remains and Pottery
Published Date: 3/19/2025
Notice
Summary
The Bureau of Land Management in Arizona has finished checking and identifying human remains and pottery linked to Native American tribes. These items were taken from looted sites in Gila County and are now ready to be returned to the tribes starting April 18, 2025. This important step respects Native cultures and helps fix past wrongs without any cost to the public.
Analyzed Economic Effects
2 provisions identified: 2 benefits, 0 costs, 0 mixed.
Repatriation of 11 ancestral remains
The Bureau of Land Management will return human remains representing 11 individuals and 235 associated funerary pottery objects to identified Native American tribes. Repatriation may occur on or after April 18, 2025.
Who may request repatriation
The Ak-Chin Indian Community; Gila River Indian Community; Hopi Tribe; Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community; and the Tohono O'odham Nation are identified as culturally affiliated and may submit written requests for repatriation. Lineal descendants or other Indian Tribes/Native Hawaiian organizations may also request repatriation if they demonstrate cultural affiliation by a preponderance of the evidence; competing requests will be resolved by the Bureau of Land Management and joint requests are treated as a single request.
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