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UCLA
Report on NAGPRA Compliance

September 2018

NAGPRA Eligible Collections at UCLA
UCLA’s collection of Native American archaeological and ethnographic materials (curated within the
Fowler Museum at UCLA) is the second largest in the UC system. In 1990 with the passage of NAGPRA,
UCLA decided to move all Native American human remains and NAGPRA eligible objects to the Fowler
Museum for compliance. The Curator of Archaeology for the Fowler Museum was designated as the
UCLA NAGPRA coordinator, responsible for all aspects of compliance including inventory work,
outreach and consultation, budget creation and implementation, and National NAGPRA obligations. The
Vice Chancellor of Research appointed a Law Professor to be the faculty advisor to his office and the UC
Office of the President as well as the Chair of the UCLA NAGPRA Coordinating Committee. They have
worked effectively together to marry knowledge about law, social justice, American Indian history,
museum, archaeology, and research.

Fowler Museum staff identified 181 archaeological and ethnographic collections with NAGPRA eligible
materials representing 2,704 minimum number of individual human remains (MNI), 108,214 associated
funerary objects (AFO), and 18,465 unassociated funerary objects (UFO). They have been published in
the Federal Register within 23 Notices of Inventory Completion (NIC) and 7 Notices of Intent to
Repatriate (NIR). Of this number, 8 NIC and 3 NIR from 55 archaeological collections have been joint
collaborations with the Bureau of Land Management, California Department of Transportation, California
State Parks, US Army Corps of Engineers, California State University San Francisco, and the National
Park Service because they had ownership and control of the collections.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs, US Bureau of Reclamation, US Navy, and California Department of Water
Resources have outstanding NAGPRA work for collections we curate on their behalf that require our time
and assistance. To note, the US Navy is updating their Notices and have required more than 100 hours of
unbudgeted staff time this year alone. Determining ownership and control of archaeological collections
with federal and state agencies continues to be problematic, as agency staffing changes may yield
different results year to year. These decisions move NAGPRA responsibility from the campus to the
agency and back again creating confusion for the tribes and us.

In addition, we identified 4,016 ethnographic objects that are potentially NAGPRA eligible. Since tribal
consultation is the key determining factor for which objects are considered sacred, funerary, or objects of
cultural patrimony, we decided to include all Fowler Native American ethnographic objects as the
baseline and sent consultation request letters to 654 tribes, Native Hawaiian and Alaskan Native Villages.
From this outreach we have had dozens of inquiry letters and visits that have resulted in two repatriations
of 19 sacred objects as culturally affiliated. Another 18 objects have been identified by tribes, but are still
under consultation due to their extreme sensitivity.

NAGPRA Compliance at UCLA

If we focus only on UCLA owned collections, there were 2,069 individual human remains and 56,083
cultural objects (AFO and UFO) eligible for NAGPRA repatriation. Since 1996, UCLA has repatriated
1,979 individual human remains and 53,916 cultural objects to federally recognized tribes (96% of the
total). There are 27 individuals and 381 cultural objects that haven’t been formally claimed, but tribes
have voiced interest and are currently in ongoing consultation towards repatriation.