fbpx
 

Late last year, the University of California-Berkeley, returned 20 human remains and more than 100 associated funerary objects to the Wiyot Tribe of California, after initially denying the tribe’s claim to their ancestors six years ago.

“Our tribal members are very happy that they’re home, because now they can be put to rest with their families,” Wiyot Tribal Chairman Ted Hernandez told Native News Online.

The ancestors were unearthed in Humboldt County during a United States Army Corps of Engineers project in 1953, according to a federal register notice. They were then given to the UC-Berkeley’s Hearst Museum of Anthropology, where they were held for nearly seven decades. 

Want more Native News? Get the free daily newsletter today.

Wiyot people of what is now known as the northern coast of California have lived in the Humboldt Bay region for thousands of years.

Tribal members knew they must be relatives who died in the Indian Island Massacre in 1860, when white settlers brutally murdered hundreds of Wiyot men, women, and children under the cover of night.

Herdandez said every Wiyot tribal member has heard the stories of family members burying their dead in specific gravesites after the massacre. “We knew that this site was one of those sites,” he said.

But UC-Berkeley, which still holds more than 9,000 human remains in its “collection,” denied the tribe’s original claim for their ancestors in 2016, according to the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) database. In 2016, UC-Berkeley’s NAGPRA committee said there wasn’t sufficient evidence to link the 20 human remains to the Wiyot Tribe.

“Our university has, in the past, not been sufficiently proactive in repatriation efforts,” said the University’s NAGPRA liaison, Tom Torma, in an email to Native News Online. “Tribal claims were often rejected even when tribes produced evidence that should have been accepted as sufficient proof.”

The university replaced its NAGPRA committee in 2018, and reevaluated old claims. Then, the committee changed their position when the tribe asked again for their ancestors last year.

“The Wiyot came back to us with their claim in 2021, and due to a new [university] policy, a new NAGPRA advisory committee, and a new campus approach and philosophy in place, their claim was found to have a strong enough case to warrant repatriation,” Torma said. 

Prior to his work with the university, Torma served as the tribal historic preservation officer for the Wiyot Tribe, though he said that overlap hasn’t affected the work at hand.

Though it took a while to get their relatives home, Hernandez said he feels hopeful that the apparent shift in museums’ attitudes toward repatriations will bring home more relatives. 

“It really is frustrating because tribes know who their ancestors are, tribes know who their people are. They know where they came from, and they need to go back home. They shouldn't be held in boxes in rooms,” he said. “Nowadays, a lot of the people are learning about the histories of the tribes and they're realizing wow, this was geocide, and they need to go back home. I do want to thank the staff at Berkeley and Tom Torma for helping bring our ancestors home. It's been a long time coming.”

More Stories Like This

US Army to Return 5 Native Ancestors to Their Descendants This Fall
‘Road to Healing’ Will Visit Boarding School Survivors in Minnesota on June 3
Senator Warren Revives Indian Boarding School Legislation with Bipartisan Support
Sweeping Maine Tribal Sovereignty Effort Likely Won’t Happen Until 2024
A Quarter-Century Later, Cal State Fullerton Prepares to Repatriate Native Ancestors Again

Native News is free to read.

We hope you enjoyed the story you've just read. For the past dozen years, we’ve covered the most important news stories that are usually overlooked by other media. From the protests at Standing Rock and the rise of the American Indian Movement (AIM), to the ongoing epidemic of Murdered and Missing Indigenous People (MMIP) and the past-due reckoning related to assimilation, cultural genocide and Indian Boarding Schools.

Our news is free for everyone to read, but it is not free to produce. That’s why we’re asking you to make a donation to help support our efforts. Any contribution — big or small — helps.  Most readers donate between $10 and $25 to help us cover the costs of salaries, travel and maintaining our digital platforms. If you’re in a position to do so, we ask you to consider making a recurring donation of $12 per month to join the Founder's Circle. All donations help us remain a force for change in Indian Country and tell the stories that are so often ignored, erased or overlooked.

Donate to Native News Online today and support independent Indigenous journalism. Thank you. 

About The Author
Jenna Kunze
Author: Jenna KunzeEmail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Senior Reporter
Jenna Kunze is a staff reporter covering Indian health, the environment and breaking news for Native News Online. She is also the lead reporter on stories related to Indian boarding schools and repatriation. Her bylines have appeared in The Arctic Sounder, High Country News, Indian Country Today, Tribal Business News, Smithsonian Magazine, Elle and Anchorage Daily News. Kunze is based in New York.