Respecting the Ancestors

Universities and museums across the United States have possession of the remains of several hundred thousand Native Americans, collected by grave robbers in past generations and kept by anthropologists today. None gave permission for their remains to be used by “science.” The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), passed by Congress in 1990, requires these institutions to survey the remains, catalogue them, report them to the federal government, find their likely descendants, and return the ancestors promptly. Thirty-three years later, that law has been honored mainly in the breach. Only in the past two or three years have some institutions begun to get serious about this responsibility. Using the University of California, Santa Barbara, as a case study, this essay charts the long path by which well-intended anthropologists managed to see themselves as champions of Native rights, yet never take steps to return the ancestors’ remains. While the goals of scientific study may be presented as beneficial to all humankind, this case study shows how the claimed interests of scientists persistently trump the human rights of the people whose bones they keep for study. The essay also reports on the long-standing efforts of Chumash Indians to recover their ancestors, and on recent moves by the university to fulfill their legal and moral obligations.