AUSTIN, Texas — One indigenous tribe in Central Texas may soon be able to reclaim and rebury three native remains held at the University of Texas at Austin after years of their repatriation effort. 

“This is an injustice," said Maria Rocha, co-founder of the Indigenous Cultures Institute. "Their institutionalized way of dealing with our people and our remains is no longer valid or right.” 

For years, Maria Rocha and her husband, Dr. Mario Garza, have been fighting to rebury their ancestors. They’re a part of the Miakan-Garza Band, a Native American tribe in Central Texas that's one of many indigenous tribes that make up the Coahuiltecan people. Together they founded the Indigenous Cultures Institute to preserve the culture and traditions of native people in Texas, and have been fighting for UT Austin to return the native remains in its archeological research laboratory for reburial. 

The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990 requires all museums and government institutions to create a public inventory of the Native American remains and cultural objects they have. 

“Our people believe that when a person dies two things happen. One, the person’s body is returned to Mother Earth… The second thing that happens is our spirit starts a spiritual journey to the great mystery. Once those remains are disturbed and pulled away from Mother Earth that spiritual journey stops," said Rocha. "That’s catastrophic for us. We know that our spirits are wandering in agony, waiting for that return… So we feel it’s our obligation, our spiritual and moral obligation to rebury those ancestors.”

UT Austin has more than a thousand native remains from all over Texas. When the Miakan-Garza Band learned that three were unearthed in Hays County, they made it their mission to repatriate them. 

“We look at this as an ethical, a human issue, a spiritual issue. UT is looking at it as a legal issue," said Rocha. 

UT initially refused their request to return the remains, but after months of pressure from the indigenous community and UT students, the university recently agreed. 

In a letter issued by Jay Hartzell, UT Austin president, he wrote "The university will promptly seek authority from the National Park Service to allow the remains identified in your letter to be reinterred. We plan to do so by requesting a recommendation from its Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act Review Committee that would enable us to offer the remains promptly for reburial."

“At last, at last they are going to be at peace," said Rocha. 

They plan to rebury the remains in their repatriation cemetery, where they’ve so far reburied seven native remains returned by Texas State University. 

“Our first ancestor was buried in the very center of our repatriation cemetery.  We're going to be burying people in a spiral going this way. And the spiral will grow bigger as more ancestors join Mother Earth," said Rocha. 

Rocha said each reburial ceremony was intensely spiritual and emotional. 

“I said today, we have here our sister, and when I said the word sister, I felt so choked up because this was my sister actually was my sister, my ancestor," said Rocha. 

“I mean sometimes where we would get hold of some remains… you could feel that the spirits were very angry. And it was hard for infant remains. Those were pretty hard. So it's very hard for us to do this," said Garza.

“It’s very hard to go through that, and then afterwards, there's this joy and excitement that we have completed an obligation. An important obligation spiritual obligation. And that makes you feel reinforced so that you go out and work some more, and help other ancestors so it's a, it's extremely emotional," said Rocha. 

Despite this one victory, it’s not the end of their fight. 

“Every long journey starts with that first step," said Rocha. "After we receive our three remains we hope that all indigenous people will gather and ask to rebury the rest… because every community has to be responsible for their people that were dug up in their area. So this is a bigger movement than just three remains right now.”