UC Santa Barbara is advancing its efforts to return Native American ancestors and cultural items, with a comprehensive repatriation program and a goal of completing this work responsibly and transparently by 2028.
The campus established a dedicated Repatriation Office in 2024 to oversee compliance with federal and state laws and to coordinate closely with Native Nations. The office is charged with summarizing collections, reporting campus holdings to state and federal Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) offices, facilitating consultation and ensuring that tribes have the information they need to guide decisions about their heritage and cultural belongings.
Most of UCSB’s holdings are curated in the Repository for Archaeological and Ethnographic Collections, a facility established decades ago as a research and storage space. The repository is not a public museum, and research is not permitted on Native American ancestors or cultural items without explicit tribal permission. While collections come from across the United States, the majority originate in Santa Barbara, Ventura and San Luis Obispo counties — the traditional homelands of the Chumash peoples. Over the years, more than 700 Native ancestors and approximately 22,000 funerary objects came into UCSB’s care.
UCSB’s NAGPRA Oversight Committee brings together UC faculty and Native representatives to guide the university’s compliance and consultation processes under NAGPRA. Committee members include Gregory Johnson, professor of religious studies and director of the Walter H. Capps Center for the Study of Ethics, Religion, and Public Life; Jon Daehnke, associate professor of anthropology; Nakia Zavalla, cultural director for the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians; and Stuart Tyson Smith, professor of anthropology. Cristina Gonzalez of the Coastal Band of the Chumash Nation serves as chair of the committee.
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