Annual Notice on the Native American Cultural Affiliation and Repatriation Policy

Dear Colleagues,

I am sending this annual reminder of the UC’s Native American Cultural Affiliation and Repatriation Policy to renew your awareness of the policy’s requirements, to affirm UC San Diego’s commitment to these laws and to the guiding principles and procedures of the UC policy, to let you know whom to contact with any questions, and, above all, to enlist your assistance ensuring the campus fully complies with this important human rights and cultural heritage effort.

The UC Office of the President (UCOP) updated the Native American Cultural Affiliation and Repatriation Policy on December 17, 2021, to increase and achieve repatriation, in compliance with the Federal Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) and the California NAGPRA (CalNAGPRA), and to increase accountability and transparency across all UC campuses. NAGPRA and CalNAGPRA were enacted to address the rights of Native American and Native Hawaiian tribes and lineal descendants to repatriation of ancestral human remains and certain cultural items (funerary objects, sacred objects, and objects of cultural patrimony).

Eva Trujillo serves as the Campus Repatriation Coordinator under the policy and has been delegated authority to implement the policy. She can be contacted at e7trujillo@ucsd.edu if you have any questions about the policy or you believe you hold cultural items that have not been previously reported. As the Chancellor’s Designee under the UC Policy, I am responsible for campus oversight, compliance, and decision-making associated with this policy, as well as NAGPRA, and CalNAGPRA.

Of particular note, I would like to remind you that our UC policy:

Articulates the repatriation of Native American and Native Hawaiian human remains as a fundamental objective and value of the university.
Requires campuses to proactively review existing collections, including all collections that contain Native American archaeological or ethnographic objects or other holdings that may potentially contain Native American or Native Hawaiian human remains or cultural items.
Prohibits the use of Native American or Native Hawaiian human remains or cultural items in research or instructional activities without tribal and university approval.
Requires the university to consult with tribes regarding traditional practices for the care of ancestral human remains and cultural items.
Provides procedures for tribes to file appeals or complaints if they disagree with campus actions or decisions under the policy.
Provides a procedure for members of the campus community to report Native American or Native Hawaiian human remains and cultural items that they believe are not being properly maintained or properly reported.
Requires each campus to perform a review of all departments and units historically engaged in studies with human remains or cultural items and all departments or units identified by department deans, chairs, or unit heads as potentially holding Native American or Native Hawaiian human remains or cultural items, in order to identify previously unreported human remains or cultural items.

For updated information regarding the Policy, please visit ucal.us/nagpra. For additional information regarding UC San Diego’s NAGPRA compliance efforts, please visit nagpra.ucsd.edu. And again, please contact UC San Diego’s Repatriation Coordinator Eva Trujillo at e7trujillo@ucsd.edu with any questions regarding the policy.

Thank you for your full cooperation with this important policy.

Elizabeth H. Simmons
Executive Vice Chancellor

University of California San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA, 92093