Indigenous tribes and state legislators Tuesday urged the California State University system to speed up the return of Indigenous remains and cultural belongings. The hearing comes after a state audit found the system has almost 700,000 remains and cultural items across 21 of its 23 campuses. Since a federal law was passed in 1990 that mandates repatriation efforts, California State has repatriated just 6 percent of the remains and cultural items systemwide.
“Our ancestors are not trophies to be highlighted in the classroom,” said the California State Assembly member James Ramos, a Democrat from San Bernardino, who led Tuesday’s hearing.
Ramos, who is also a member of the Serrano/Cahuilla tribe, urged California State leaders to consider cultural knowledge when repatriating remains and belongings. He also proposed an assembly bill that would adopt the recommendations of the state audit and strengthen communications with tribal communities during the repatriation process. He said the system should not only consider Indigenous representation when conducting repatriation reviews, but also take into account historical perspective when weighing which tribes to return remains to.
“These aren’t just bones in a box, they’re our family members,” Ramos said. “There’s horrific things that happened in the state of California with militias that were formed by the state and went out to kill Indian people. Those are the remains that we’re trying to get back for proper reburial.”
Universities across the country began collecting the bones of Indigenous people in the 19th century. In collaboration with the United States government and military, the graves of Native people were looted, their items were taken as “souvenirs” from massacre sites, and their bones were studied to determine whether Native Americans were “racially inferior.”
“I’d ask all non-tribal people to picture your family, your ancestors and their belongings that you hold near and dear, that they’re used under the guise of an artifact on display for public learning and teaching, which is the unfortunate reality of my people,” said Johnny Hernandez, the vice chairman of the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians. “We’re talking about humanity and human rights. We need to finally get this right and bring all our people home.”
The California State campuses were required to complete their collection reviews by 1995 under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, or NAGPRA, a federal law mandating that remains and artifacts be repatriated in a timely manner. But after universities neglected to follow both federal law and its state-specific counterpart, the California Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, or CalNAGPRA, for decades, tribes are demanding action.
“It is appalling, unacceptable, and shameful,” said Melissa Tayaba, vice chair of the Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians. “The excuses given for over decades now are hollow and must be dealt with by all parties involved, either through enforcement or accountability.”
During the legislative hearing, California State administrators from the Sonoma, Sacramento, Chico, and Fullerton campuses said they have been overwhelmed with the sheer size of how many remains and artifacts their institutions hold, that the repatriation process is “labor intensive,” and that they lack funding, staffing, and policies to expedite the process.
Sonoma has the largest collection of any Cal State campus, with over 180,000 remains and cultural belongings, the audit found. The university said its review is ongoing. Chico follows with 150,200 items, while Sacramento, which also hasn’t completed its review, has about 115,900. Fullerton has a collection of 8,300 items.
The Chancellor’s Office said the system’s interim chancellor, Jolene Koester, was unable to attend the hearing due to a “family medical issue that could not be avoided.”
“I do not want these clarifications to sound like excuses,” said Steve Perez, the president of Chico State. “We understand we can’t truly say we honor Native communities until we have fully complied with NAGPRA and CalNAGPRA.”
College administrators also apologized for the pain caused by the withholding of Indigenous remains and artifacts by their respective universities.
“We can definitely do better, and we will do better,” said Ming-Tung (Mike) Lee, the president of Sonoma State.
The state’s principal auditor, Laura Kearney, said during the hearing that, because California State hasn’t prioritized being in compliance with NAGPRA, most campuses do not know the full extent of their collections. While the state audit found that the system has around 700,000 remains and items, that number is likely to grow as reviews continue.
The continued lack of compliance prolongs the trauma and emotional pain tribes feel.
Some colleges violated state law by not consulting with tribes before beginning their collection reviews, auditors found. Raymond C. Hitchcock, a representative of the state’s Native American Heritage Commission, said the universities’ delays serve as a “grim reminder of our history of genocide.”
“There are far too many violations and clear disregard for the process outlined,” said Hitchcock, who is Miwok by descent and a member of the Wilton Rancheria tribe. “The continued lack of compliance prolongs the trauma and emotional pain tribes feel.”
Auditors recommended that the Chancellor’s Office monitor each campus’s individual efforts and mandate that each university’s inventory be completed by December 2024. Additionally, auditors urged the Chancellor’s Office to establish a systemwide NAGPRA committee by December, and that campuses with collections holding over 100 items create their own NAGPRA committees. Full-time repatriation coordinators should also be hired at each university by June 2024, auditors said.
During the hearing, Jack Potter Jr., the tribal chairman of the Redding Rancheria, recalled holding the bones of an Indigenous grandmother being held at the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology at the University of California at Berkeley.
A hole was bashed into her skull, and Potter gathered she had died after being attacked. Stored next to her was a broken pestle, a tool used to make corn mash, which Potter estimated was used to kill her.
Her remains were stored alongside the bones of five Indigenous children. He imagined her preparing corn mash for them, likely her grandchildren.
“It was bothersome to my heart and my spirit,” Potter said. She was later buried that May.
Tribal leaders are demanding their ancestors and cultural belongings be returned swiftly. As they’ve waited over 30 years since the enactment of NAGPRA, tribes said they just want their loved ones home.
“As we’re still trying to rebuild our nations from the genocide that happened to our people, it is hard when we know the spirits of our ancestors are locked in shelves,” Potter said. “We have to go through this and we shouldn’t. Our people should be left lying to rest.”
