University of Denver Returns Sacred Cheyenne and Arapaho Artifacts Under NAGPRA

Colorado public radio station KUNC reported on April 7, 2026, that the University of Denver's museum is returning sacred Cheyenne and Arapaho artifacts to the tribes after decades in storage. The repatriation is being carried out under the federal Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), which requires museums and universities to return ceremonial objects and ancestral remains to their originating nations.

The returned items include pipes and other sacred objects used in Arapaho ceremonies, many of them collected more than a century ago and held in conditions that tribal representatives say were never appropriate for objects of such spiritual significance. Fred Mosqueda, representing the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes, told KUNC that the returns are an important step in restoring what was taken and in rebuilding trust with institutions that historically treated Native heritage as artifacts rather than living culture.

“The repatriation is being carried out under the federal Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), which requires museums and universities to return ceremonial objects and ancestral remains to their originating nations.”

Dena Sedar, the NAGPRA manager for the DU museum, said the university worked closely with tribal representatives to identify objects, consult on handling and transport, and plan the formal transfer. The process, she said, has also reshaped how the museum catalogs and displays its remaining holdings, with tribal consultation now a routine part of decisions about what belongs in public galleries.

The repatriation arrives amid a broader national reckoning over the holdings of U.S. museums, which hundreds of years of colonization and collecting filled with items that were never meant to be separated from their communities. For the Cheyenne and Arapaho, the return is both a practical recovery and a spiritual one — objects that can now be used again in ceremonies that have continued across generations.