SAN ANTONIO — Ramon Vasquez proudly defends his culture. He has photos of those who paved the way for him inside the headquarters for his nonprofit agency, American Indians in Texas at the Spanish Colonial Missions. 

“This more or less talks about how long we’ve been at this. This is my grandmother, Olivia Sanchez,” Vasquez said. “This is our newest campaign, the murdered and Indigenous women campaign.” 

He’s the spokesperson for the Tap Pilam Coahuiltecan Nation, a group that has been fighting to get remains of their ancestors returned for decades. 

The group will soon see its wishes come true.

“We filed our letters with the different institutions that we knew held ancestral remains of Coahuiltecan people,” Vasquez said. 

Vasquez is talking about institutions like the Witte Museum in San Antonio. 

“The Witte has 62 individuals that were taken. Half the of the individuals were from West Texas,” Witte Museum CEO Marise McDermott said.

McDermott says the remains were excavated overtime between the 1930s and 1980s.

When the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act law was updated in 2013, it created a pathway for aboriginal people, culturally or geographically, connected to accept the remains.

Now, the Witte is set to return 31 Coahuiltecan ancestral remains to be buried in West Texas. It's a decision Coahuiltecan member Linda Ximenes says will provide a more formal history.

“[They'll go] back into a burial ground where they can rest, and then secondly it also acknowledges the fact we have cultural affiliation with this area,” Ximenes said.

The museum first had to speak with all of the tribes connected to the land.

“They came to the Witte over all of those years, eventually were able to find a path forward to work with the Tap Pilam Coahuiltecan people,” Vasquez said.

This year, the Witte and Coahuiltecan people’s reinterment request was granted by the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Review Committee. 

The Witte didn’t want to disclose where the rest of remains are housed for safety reasons. Museums and universities are using loopholes to hold onto remains by categorizing them as “culturally unidentifiable human remains.”

“I don’t know any American Indian community that has ever benefited from any studies that have been done with any human remains,” Vasquez said. 

The Witte says this work, with the guidance of the Coahuiltecan people, will get them closer to making amends. For Vasquez, it’s about making sure all of the ancestral remains are returned.

“This is an opportunity to ask for forgiveness for allowing this to happen, but at the same time we understand that there is more,” Vasquez said. “The most important is that they get put back into the ground. There’s no reason for ancestral remains should be housed anywhere anymore.”