UC failed to repatriate Native American human remains on time, state audit finds
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UC FAILS TO RETURN NATIVE AMERICAN REMAINS ON TIME, STATE AUDIT FINDS
The California State Auditor on Tuesday issued a stark assessment of the University of California system’s efforts to repatriate and return Native Americans’ remains and cultural items.
Despite progress over the past five years, the UC system still holds “thousands of individuals and hundreds of thousands of potential cultural items and will likely take more than a decade at its current pace to repatriate all of its collections,” the state audit reported.
In an effort to recognize the rights of Native American descendants, Congress passed federal legislation in 1990 that allows federally recognized tribes to request the return of cultural items and human remains. California expanded on the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act in 2001 to include tribes in the state that are not federally recognized.
Despite this law and “years of external attention,” the Office of the President doesn’t know the full extent of the remains and items on UC campuses, the audit found.
The report, the third of four audits required by state law, found that the Office of the President had not “effectively overseen the university’s compliance” with the federal repatriation act.
Additionally, auditors found that universities had not properly cared for or stored potential cultural items. As an example, auditors pointed to 30 items that were stolen in 2022 from a UC Davis lecture hall.
In addition to the Office of the President, the audit reviewed four UC campuses: Berkeley, Riverside, San Diego and Santa Barbara.
State Auditor Grant Parks issued a series of recommendations as part of the report, which advised that the Legislature appropriate funding specifically to prioritize returning tribal artifacts and human remains. Additionally, Parks recommended the Office of the President establish clear timelines and accountability measures to identify undiscovered remains or items on all UC campuses.
In response to the audit, UC President Dr. Michael Drake said the university system is committed to repatriating ancestral remains.
“It is clear that more needs to be done to meet those obligations,” Drake said in a response letter. “To that end, the University will implement each recommendation within the draft audit report.”
In a letter sent to UC chancellors last week, Drake instituted a range of directives to improve the system’s oversight, tracking, and transparency of the repatriation process. The president directed campuses to speed up the discovery of remains and items and provide his office with quarterly progress reports.
NEWSOM ASKS CANADIANS TO KEEP VISITING
Via Lia Russell…
If you’re a Canuck nervous about traveling to California, Gov. Gavin Newsom has a message for you: don’t let President Donald Trump ruin your beach trip.
Newsom is lobbying Canadian tourists to continue vacationing in the Golden State, weeks after pleading with world leaders to look past Trump’s tariffs and keep trading with California.
He met with British Columbia Premier David Eby Monday, and hours later announced a $5.2 million campaign with Visit California, the state’s nonprofit travel arm, to entice Canadian tourists to continue visiting, and vice versa.
The number of Canadians visiting the United States has dropped precipitously since Trump took office and began claiming the country is the “51st state.” The decline in crossings, along with Trump’s tariffs, has particularly hurt economies in border states like Maine.
“California is open, welcoming, and deeply values its international visitors, especially Canadians,” Newsom said in a statement.
“From the warmth of its people to its unmatched diversity of landscapes and activities, California is the ultimate playground — and a far cry from Washington, D.C. California will continue to be a welcome destination for its international neighbors to the north.”
NEWEST D.C. MUSEUM MAY HONOR LATINO AMERICANS
Via David Lightman…
Could Washington, D.C., soon have a National Museum of the American Latino?
Democrats and Republicans joined together Tuesday to formally introduce legislation to do just that.
The bill would be the next step to building the museum in Washington. The museum was established by a measure signed into law by President Donald Trump in 2020.
“I intimately understand the immense contributions and accomplishments Latinos have made to our nation — and the barriers we have had to overcome,” said Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., one of the new bill’s sponsors. Padilla is the first Latino elected to represent California in the Senate.
The next step involves new legislation that would allow the Smithsonian to build the museum on Washington’s National Mall Reserve.
It would require the National Park Service to transfer the land and not be subject to what could be a long environmental review process. The Smithsonian would eventually have to conduct its own environmental review, though, before any building could start.
The legislation “does not require new federal spending from taxpayers; it simply allows for land designation,” the bill says.
The bill was introduced in conjunction with another museum project involving women’s history. The Smithsonian’s Board of Regents looked at 25 different sites for the museums and recommended two.
Sponsors of the Latino museum bill include Padilla and Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nevada, Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, Ben Ray Luján, D-New Mexico, Ruben Gallego, D-Arizona and Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“Your Social Security benefits should not be impacted by President Trump and Elon Musk’s cuts to federal funding and programs.”
— Attorney General Rob Bonta, while asking Californians to report any disruptions to their Social Security benefits using a new website: oag.ca.gov/socialsecurity.
Best of The Bee:
California will try to extend cap-and-trade despite Trump’s threats, via Lia Russell
California AG Rob Bonta urges Congress to ban ‘middlemen’ from owning pharmacies, via William Melhado
Gavin Newsom calls for special election to replace Assemblyman Bill Essayli, via Lia Russell
Republicans call Central Valley congressman ‘terrorist sympathizer.’ Is it true? Via David Lightman
This story was originally published April 16, 2025 at 4:55 AM.
