SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Native American tribes are requesting their artifacts back from the University of California (UC) and California State University (CSU) systems. This is now the third audit and attempt for items to be returned, a problem for over 30 years.
The overall was one of non compliance given by the state auditor.
Charles Martin from Morongo Band of Mission Indians was one of the several people to speak on the panel.
“All we are asking is that you give them back, give them back, folks,” Martin said.
Native American leaders are finding themselves once again disappointed by the results of a now third state audit. California’s state auditor has conducted three audits: a UC audit undertaken in 2019, a second UC review in 2021 and a CSU survey and report in 2022.
Morning Star Gali with Ajumawi Band Pit River Tribe spoke in public comment.
“It’s ongoing personal trauma and collective trauma to our tribal community,” Gali said.
The law requiring repatriation went into effect in 1990, but the state audit revealed CSU’s have only returned 6% of items.
Half the CSU’s have returned nothing, and across all campuses more than half are unsure of the extent of their collections.
Assemblymember James Ramos, who is native American, said it’s time for accountability and consequences.
“How are you complying with repatriation to California’s first people and the nation’s first people. That should be a first question when people are asking for more budgets in the education arena,” Ramos said.
ABC10 looked into Sacramento area campuses. According to the UC Repatriation dashboard, UC Davis has returned more than half of the human remains and returned roughly 49,000 of 56,000 funeral artifacts.
UC Vice President for Research and Innovation Teresa Maldonado was there to answer for the state audit.
“UC Davis has the goal of returning all known ancestors by June 2027,” Maldonado said.
Sacramento State University had the third largest collection of items with 115,000-plus items, according to the state audit in 2022 with only 5% returned.
Sacramento State said they returned more than 85% of ancestral remains, but didn’t clarify in regards to the total number of items.
CSU Chancellor Dr. Mildred Garcia said campus presidents will now be reviewed on their repatriation efforts the same way they are reviewed on academics, enrollment and world class facilities.
“I am deeply sorry for us here at the Cal State for doing this horrendous thing for so many years,” Garcia said.
This committee will continue to monitor the universities and colleges over the next five years to see if progress is being made. The CSU system is also looking into a dashboard like the UC’s. Community colleges have yet to be audited, so that also needs to be addressed.
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