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TO: MICHAEL BROWN, PROVOST, UCOP
FROM: BENJAMIN PORTER, DIRECTOR, HEARST MUSEUM, UC BERKELEY
SUBJ.: SUMMARY OF NAGPRA ACTIVITIES FOR REGENTS MEETING
DATE: SEPTEMBER 10, 2018
CC: WENDY STREITZ, EXEC. DIRECTOR, RESEARCH POLICY ANALYSIS & COORDINATION, UCOP

INTRODUCTION
In response to a September 5, 2018 request by the University of California Office of the
President’s (UCOP) Office of Research Policy Analysis & Coordination, the Phoebe A. Hearst
Museum of Anthropology (Hearst Museum) is pleased to provide this summary of its Native
American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) activities since 2016, as well as
additional, contextual information. It is the Museum’s hope and understanding that this
document will help to inform a discussion item at the upcoming September 26-27 Regents
Meeting. The Museum stands ready to respond to any additional questions that may arise.

BACKGROUND
The Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology cares for one of the largest NAGPRA-implicated
collections of Native American human remains and cultural items in the United States. Because
of the scope, size, and age of its collections, the Hearst Museum is unique within the UC system,
and its repatriation operations much more closely align with peer institutions such the American
Museum of Natural History, Field Museum, Harvard Peabody, and—though different legislation
applies—the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, than with other UC campuses.

UC Berkeley is a 150-year-old campus, and for many decades served as California’s only major
collecting institution. Berkeley’s unique position was solidified when its Department of
Anthropology established the University of California Archaeological Survey. Operating from
1948 – 1961, the UCAS carried out site reconnaissance and excavations across the state—often
on contract from federal agencies in advance of major reclamation and infrastructure projects
to identify or collect what archaeological resources could be saved. The majority of those
materials were sent to the Hearst Museum, including those from state and federal land, for
which the Hearst Museum functioned as a repository. By contrast, other UC campuses have
cared for smaller, more localized collections, often originated from their surrounding regions.
UCLA’s relatively small collection, for instance, was mostly derived from Southern California. UC
Berkeley’s affiliation determinations are similar to UCLA’s for human remains and associated
funerary objects from those locales. Many of the human remains and associated funerary
objects in UC Berkeley’s care were collected from the aboriginal territories of federally
unrecognized tribes.

The Hearst Museum was one of several large institutions to be granted a period of forbearance
in which to file its NAGPRA inventories. Following a Department of Interior-enforced timeline,
UC Berkeley completed its affirmative NAGPRA inventory consultation and reporting obligations
in 2000 (notwithstanding, per 43 CFR 10.13, the potential future reporting of newly discovered