(StraightShooterNews.com) – Demanding the return of their ancestors’ artifacts and human remains, members of the Muwekma Ohlone Native American Tribe made a protest outside the University of California Berkeley as part of their cross-country ‘Trail of Truth’ campaign.
According to a source, the tribe’s demonstration is part of a larger effort to gain federal recognition, a status they say is needed to reclaim their artifacts from the university,
Tribe leader Joey Iyolopixtli Torres explained that UC Berkeley was a stop in their nationwide “Trail of Truth” movement.
During the visit, Torres mentioned that the group prayed for their ancestors who are still being “held captive” by the university’s Hearst Museum of Anthropology.
Tribal leaders stated that the university still possesses tens of thousands of sacred artifacts and the remains of its ancestors, which it claims are stored “in boxes in the museum’s basement.”
Moreover, state and federal laws require public universities and museums to return Native American remains and cultural items to tribes. However, the lack of federal recognition has hindered the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe’s efforts to retrieve their artifacts.
Tribal Chairwoman Charlene Nijmeh explained that the Muwekma Ohlone people are descendants of the Verona Band of Alameda County. This group was federally recognized in the early 1900s but lost this status in 1927.
Additionally, UC Berkeley played a significant role in this history. The university’s first anthropology professor, Alfred L. Kroeber, encouraged the excavation of Native American burial sites and later declared the Muwekma Ohlone tribe extinct. This declaration directly led to the loss of their federal recognition and land rights.
After the federal act passed in 1990, the university was known to frequently deny requests to return remains. Nevertheless, starting in 2018, they renovated their compliance efforts. A spokesperson stated that in the past five years, UC Berkeley has not denied any repatriation claims and has overturned previous denials.
A University of California database shows that UC Berkeley has 4,850 human remains that are “not yet repatriated,” along with nearly 25,000 “funerary objects.”
Recently, the California State University and the University of California systems have created several new staff positions focused on “tribal relations” and compliance with repatriation laws.
Despite these efforts, some historians argue that repatriating these items could hinder historical and archeological research.
Copyright 2024, StraightShooterNews.com
