Since 2016 the Miakan-Garza tribe has sought the return of three ancestors unearthed from Hays County and held by U.T. Austin. Despite a promise from U.T. President Hartzell on September 25, 2020 that the ancestors would be “promptly” reburied, to date the three remains have not been returned for reburial.
Dr. Garza is the Cultural Preservation Officer of the Miakan-Garza tribe, a state-legislature-recognized tribe of Texas. He has worked in repatriation efforts for the past 40 years and has negotiated a landback agreement to establish the first Texas-city reburial cemetery in San Marcos, Texas. He helped to establish the Comanche Cemetery at Fort Hood and was part of the largest repatriation in Texas conducted at San Juan Mission in San Antonio. Maria Rocha is a member of the Miakan-Garza and for sixteen years was the executive director of Indigenous Cultures Institute, founded by the tribe in 2006.