Cal Berkeley Repatriates Dusty Stone Tools to Tribes
Published Date: 3/19/2025
Notice
Summary
The University of California, Berkeley plans to return 32 Native American cultural items, like stone tools, to the tribes they belong to. These items were collected decades ago and will be repatriated starting April 18, 2025. This move respects Native American heritage and follows important laws protecting their cultural objects.
Analyzed Economic Effects
3 provisions identified: 2 benefits, 1 costs, 0 mixed.
Return of 32 Native cultural items
If you are affiliated with the Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians, the University of California, Berkeley intends to repatriate 32 unassociated funerary cultural items (including stone tools, beads, baked clay, ocher, shell ornaments, cores, projectile points, and discoidals) that have a cultural affiliation with the Shingle Springs Band. Repatriation may occur on or after April 18, 2025.
How others can request repatriation
If you are a lineal descendant, Indian Tribe, or Native Hawaiian organization not named in the notice, you may submit a written request for repatriation to UC Berkeley showing by a preponderance of the evidence that you are a lineal descendant or culturally affiliated. The notice states competing requests will be resolved by UC Berkeley, and requests for joint repatriation are treated as a single request.
Collections may have hazardous treatments
The notice states that collections and collection spaces at the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology were treated with substances for preservation and pest control, some potentially hazardous, and that no museum records have been found to indicate whether chemicals or natural substances were used prior to 1960. This information is provided in the notice about the items being repatriated.
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