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University of California, Davis
NAGPRA Compliance Report

September 10, 2018

emails, and letters to in-person visits. In the last three years UC Davis has consulted with twelve tribes
in-person either at UC Davis or tribal offices. The majority of these consultations have occurred over
multiple in-person visits.

In order to help tribes obtain funding to build capacity for both consultation and repatriation, the
NAGPRA Project Manager teaches NAGPRA courses including NAGPRA Essentials and a NAGPRA Grant
Writing course offered through the National Preservation Institute. These courses are offered
throughout the country, but most frequently in California. Courses have been offered four times in
California since 2015, with multiple California tribes attending.

Claims

Native American human remains and cultural items may be transferred to tribes after publication of
Notices in the Federal Register and valid claim by relevant tribes. UC Davis has received relatively few
NAGPRA claims, a total of nine since NAGPRA was enacted, the first of which was received in 2000. Five
claims have been accepted and the materials repatriated or transferred; one claim has been accepted
and is pending publication in the Federal Register. One tribe has claimed human remains but requested
that they be held by UC Davis until reburial can be arranged. In the meantime, control has been
transferred to the claimant tribe. Of the unresolved claims, UC Davis is actively consulting with two
claimant tribes. One tribe has indicated that they are currently not ready to consult.
Approximately 60% of culturally affiliated remains published in Notices of Inventory Completion (19 of
the 32 individuals) have been claimed and repatriated. UC Davis has been actively soliciting consultation
and claims for the remaining 13 individuals. When requested, UC Davis provides template claim letters
to simplify the NAGPRA process. Four Federal Register Notices addressing 16 individuals and 1,089
funerary object were recently submitted to National NAGPRA for review and publication.

Consulting tribes have expressed a variety of barriers to making claims including repatriation funding,
reburial lands, or coordination of repatriations with other institutions. When tribes identify repatriation
funding as a barrier to repatriation, NAGPRA staff are ready to assist or write NAGPRA Repatriation
Grants to support tribal efforts. Two such NAGPRA Repatriation grants have been successfully funded.
At the request of one consulting tribe, NAGPRA staff traveled to Barrow, Alaska to personally transfer
human remains and participate in the reburial ceremony. When asked, NAGPRA staff are willing to help
facilitate conversations about reburial on public or private lands.
UC Davis Policy on Curation and Repatriation of Native American Human remains and Cultural Items

UC Davis has a robust Policy on the Curation and Repatriation of Native American Human Remains and
Cultural Items (PPM 220-50). This policy became effective July 31, 2017 after review of other policies
and best practices from other institutions across the country and extensive consultation with California
Indian tribes, and faculty and staff. UC Davis invited all tribes with whom we were consulting on
NAGPRA an opportunity to consult on the draft policy. The fifteen tribes consulted were identified based
on the geographic location of remains housed at UC Davis. Four tribes provided feedback, most of which
was directly addressed or incorporated. The process to develop policy and consult took approximately a
year and a half and was done with the strong consideration of tribal input and balance of the campus’s
various responsibilities as a public university.