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and perspectives, instituting term limits for Committee membership, and transferring the role of
Designated Campus NAGPRA Official from the Hearst Museum Director position to that of the
Vice Chancellor for Research. Greater transparency into the Campus process has been achieved
through the creation of a new website (https://vcresearch.berkeley.edu/research-
policies/nagpra), which details the Campus process as well as the Committee’s membership and
purview.

Eight museum staff members dedicate portions of their overall efforts to caring for the
Museum’s North American collections in activities that include collections management,
registration, NAGPRA claims, and tribal consultations and visits. Of these eight, three members,
two cultural policy experts and one collections manager, dedicate 100 percent of their time.
During the past several years, the Museum has received $470,000 annually from the
Chancellor’s Block Fund to cover supplies, and the salary and benefits of the staff members who
support the program. Funding to support non-NAGPRA activities, such as those described below,
originate from campus and extra-campus (e.g., grants, donors) sources. These costs fluctuate
from year-to-year and are dependent on having the funds available to support the work.

Day-to-day NAGPRA activities at Berkeley remain the responsibility of the Hearst Museum’s
two-person Cultural Policy & Repatriation (CPR) office, which reports to the Hearst Museum
Director and works closely with members of the Museum’s Collections, Registration, and
Research divisions to coordinate related efforts. CPR carries out the Museum’s many other, non-
NAGPRA-specific cultural policy responsibilities, as well, including, but not limited to,
provenance research for potential new acquisitions and the management of the Museum’s
relationship with its dedicated Native American Advisory Council, as detailed below.

Since its creation in 2013, CPR has streamlined and systemized UC Berkeley’s NAGPRA claims
process: responding to tribal requests in a timely manner (usually within 24 hours), and, for
example, providing additional copies of NAGPRA inventories, archival documentation, and
information on next steps. When repatriation claims are not accepted at the various levels of
review, CPR has identified for claimant Tribes where further information might be helpful. On
average, CPR processes three to five NAGPRA claims at a time: conducting intensive scholarly
research and consulting collaboratively with claimant Tribes to gather evidence for review by
the Designated Campus NAGPRA Official, the Campus’ NAGPRA Advisory Committee, the UC
System-wide NAGPRA advisory committee, and UCOP administrators. CPR is also active in the
Department of Interior’s NAGPRA grant process, writing letters of support for Tribes who wish
to consult with the Museum on repatriation issues.

Since 2016, UC Berkeley has repatriated 635 sets of human remains, 1,575 associated funerary
objects, and three objects fitting NAGPRA’s other category definitions. CPR has also coordinated
four transfers of federal collections housed at the Hearst Museum to their controlling agencies
for subsequent repatriation. During this period, the Hearst Museum has submitted to the
National Park Service one Notice of Intent to Repatriate and one Notice of Inventory Completion
for publication in the Federal Register, describing three cultural objects and 36 sets of human
remains, respectively.

The Museum continues to care for a large number of human remains and associated funerary
objects that have been culturally affiliated, but that have not yet been requested for physical
transfer by the affiliated Tribes. The Museum exerts no pressure on affiliated Tribes to complete