By: Claire Lavarreda
Over the Fall ‘25 and Spring ‘26 semesters, I partnered with the Association on American Indian Affairs and Archaeology Southwest’s “Save History” initiative to create a research project that addressed the destruction, theft, and desecration of Native American cultural property and heritage sites. The inspiration for this project stemmed from an Intensive NAGPRA (Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act) Summer Training Program I attended in July 2025, where I was introduced to the ongoing cultural heritage and property issues facing Native Nations. Looting, vandalism, and various violations have been perpetuated against Native peoples since colonization began, something that the Association on American Indian Affairs and Archaeology Southwest actively combat.
The Association on American Indian Affairs (the “Association” for short) is the “oldest national Native non-profit” dedicated to protecting and empowering Native Nations through three core program areas, including Cultural Sovereignty, Next Generations, and Become An Ally.1 Established in 1922, the Association provides a wide variety of programs and initiatives, including Native college scholarships, policy development, educational resources and training, an Annual Repatriation Conference, auction monitoring, and much more. Shannon O’Loughlin, Chief Executive and Attorney of the Association on American Indian Affairs, currently leads the organization.
Archaeology Southwest was founded in 1989 and is based in Tucson, Arizona. The non-profit practices Preservation Archaeology, which promotes protection, stewardship, and conservation of heritage sites, with a particular focus on collaboration with Native Nations. Archaeology Southwest utilizes low-impact investigations, advocacy initiatives, and community partnerships to educate the public.2 Shannon Cowell, ARPA Director & Preservation Archaeologist, leads the ARPA Assistance Initiative, which works with Native Nations to “prevent, detect, and respond to archaeological resource crimes.”3 This includes ARPA (Archaeological Resources Protection Act) training, investigations, damage assessments, restoration support, and much more. Educational resources, confidential reporting, and interviews are available via the Save History website.
Both organizations—the Association and Archaeology Southwest—are committed to protecting Native cultural property and heritage. In the late summer and early fall, Shannon O’Loughlin introduced me to Shannon Cowell, who was actively collecting data on looting and ARPA prosecutions. After discussion with Cowell, I decided to track NAGPRA and ARPA violations/cases from the last twenty years, using a collection of ARPA cases Cowell had gathered for her team’s research, as well as NAGPRA cases I found on my own via Court Listener and PACER.
The goal with my research project was to support the ongoing efforts of the Association and Save History by compiling, organizing, and visualizing case data for both non-profits to use as needed. I used Tableau to produce a map and data visualizations, with an accompanying analysis and a workbook for both organizations to expand upon. Tableau is known for its powerful data visualization capability, and I wanted to challenge myself by using a tool I had not worked with before. Though I originally imagined a public website with cases and resources, the nature of the information necessitated greater privacy in the form of a report. The finished project currently includes:
- A data visualization report, which includes images of the Tableau map, an overview of my methodology, and the potential for future work.
- A general report on key Native cultural property laws, including the American Antiquities Act (1906), the American Indian Religious Freedom Act (1978), the Museum of the American Indian Act (1989), the Archaeological Resources Protection Act (1979), the Native American Graves and Repatriation Act (1990), the Indian Arts and Crafts Act (1990), and the Safeguard Tribal Objects of Patrimony Act (2022).
- A redacted spreadsheet for all 70+ cases with columns for the Year Filed, Case Title, Type, Court, Court City + State, Judges, Citations, Docket Number, NAGPRA or ARPA Related?, Location of Interest, Latitude, Longitude, Location of Interest State, Opinion/Decision/Disposition, Link, Source Citation, and Other Sources.
- A Tableau workbook, not accessible to the public.
My methodology for the project relied on an initial investigation of Federal Indian Law. In order to understand the aforementioned federal cultural property acts which apply to Native Nations (such as STOP or NAGPRA), I first needed to understand the legal relationship between the U.S. government and Native Nations. My federal law research was informed by Native scholarship and theory, including Mastering Native American Law by Angelique Wambdi EagleWoman and Stacy L. Leeds, as well as work produced by organizations like the Native American Rights Fund and the University of Alaska Fairbanks’ Department of Tribal Governance.4 Though there are many complex systems and characteristics that define Federal Indian Law, the core principle that guides the U.S. and Native/Tribal relationship is the inherent sovereignty of Native Nations. Nations and Tribes are sovereign, and governed themselves long before the U.S. existed.5 Within the systems of Federal Indian Law, cultural property laws exist—however, these laws were not created for the benefit of Native Nations. In fact, most of the laws were intended to protect researchers and scientists. For example, though the American Antiquities Act (1906) has been used to protect Native sites, it was originally established to protect archaeologial sites on public lands for researchers, and to enable the President to establish national monuments.6
The second step of my process involved collecting NAGPRA and ARPA cases. I used Court Listener and PACER to search for NAGPRA and ARPA prosecutions on my own, only selecting cases from 2006–2026, and those that dealt directly with NAGPRA or ARPA violations. For example, the case of John Thorpe V. Borough of Jim Thorpe (2014) was included as it is focused on the repatriation of Jim Thorpe, whereas the case Lustre Oil V. Anadarko (2023) was not, because it only cited NAGPRA in discussion on sovereign immunity status. The majority of cases, however, were provided by Shannon Cowell, and covered the Western and Southwest United States, including Arizona, Arkansas, Texas, Washington, Utah, Nevada, South Dakota, Oregon, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Montana, California, Kentucky, Louisiana, and Missouri. I then went through each case to obtain core data – such as the year filed and deposition – and organized the information into a spreadsheet, which I was able to use in Tableau. I produced several map visualizations with the data, an example of which can be seen below.
Figure 1: An example of a case (US v. Hawkes) in Tableau when a dot is clicked on/hovered over. In this visualization, an ARPA case was selected and the pop-up displays the case title, docket number, location, judges, deposition, and year filed. In the background, a filter distinguishing ARPA, NAGPRA, and joint NAGPRA + ARPA cases has separated the cases by blue, orange, and red colors. This visualization not only provides the location of the incident (when zoomed in), but valuable case information.
Both Shannon O’Loughlin and Shannon Cowell reminded me about the importance of privacy when dealing with Native cultural property and heritage sites. By making information public—such as the longitude and latitude of a specific incident—other looters may be attracted to the site. I did not want to contribute to the cycle of harm that Native Nations experience regarding their heritage, property, and Ancestors—therefore, I realized that my project could not be added to Tableau Public, and certain information needed to be redacted. These sites, sacred objects, and Ancestors are not “artifacts” or “old” items lost to time—they are living connections. As a historian, “the past” is often characterized as just that—something that once was, and no longer exists. Yet for many cultures, especially Indigenous peoples, “the past” is not a stagnant, unchanging thing—it is intimately tied with the present, and is vital for cultural preservation and persistence.
Patty Krawec, an Anishnaabe author and activist from Lac Seul First Nation, writes in her work Becoming Kin: An Indigenous Call to Unforgetting the Past and Reimagining Our Future (2022):
“Forcing us into a different creation story begins our disconnection from the land. We have always been here: this is how we understand ourselves… this land is where we emerged as peoples; this is where we developed our political systems and cosmologies. Our words and our stories hold this knowledge. Our origin story is valuable because it not only tells us who we are; it tells us who we can become.”7
Wisdom, guidance, and connection are preserved in Native oral histories, creation stories, cultural property, and Ancestors. Therefore, history is not neutral nor finished, it is inherently connected to the present and the future. By protecting Native heritage sites, we can improve human relationships with each other and the environment. If you are interested in exploring the project fully, I recommend beginning with the data visualization report to gain a background on the project’s process. For further information on laws like NAGPRA and AIRFA, you can proceed to the law report. The redacted spreadsheet can be viewed in tandem with the data visualization report, but it is not necessary in order to understand the project.
The theft and destruction of Native cultural property is ongoing, and it is my goal to continue collaborating with the Association and Save History on this project to support prevention and restoration. My future goals for the project include investigating cases in the Eastern United States, and increasing the amount of NAGPRA cases, as ARPA cases currently dominate the data. Working with the Association and Save History has emphasized the importance of applied and public history in non-profit organizations, and I am grateful to both Shannon O’Loughlin and Shannon Cowell for the opportunity to contribute to their real-world impact with my research.
Notes:
1. Association on American Indian Affairs, “About,” Association on American Indian Affairs, accessed April 13, 2026, https://www.indian-affairs.org/
2. Archaeology Southwest, “What We Do,” Archaeology Southwest, accessed April 13, 2026, https://www.archaeologysouthwest.org/about/
3. ARPA Assistance Initiative, “Menu of Services,” Archaeology Southwest, accessed April 13, 2026, https://www.archaeologysouthwest.org/wp-content/uploads/ARPA-Assistance_Menu-of-Services.pdf
4. Angelique Wambdi EagleWoman and Stacy Leeds, Mastering Native American Law (Durham: Carolina Academic Press, 2024).
5. Department of Tribal Governance, “General Principles of Federal Indian Law,” University of
Alaska Fairbanks, accessed December 3, 2025, https://www.uaf.edu/tribal/academics/112/unit-4/generalprinciplesoffederalindianlaw.php; Native American Rights Fund, “Protecting Bears Ears National Monument,” NARF, accessed January 20, 2026, https://narf.org/cases/bears-ears/
6. National Park Service, “Antiquities Act of 1906,” NPS, February 10, 2025, https://www.nps.gov/subjects/archeology/antiquities-act.htm
7. Patty Krawec, Becoming Kin, (Minneapolis: Broadleaf Books, 2022), 27.
