Top officials from the University of California will be called to account Tuesday morning for their ongoing failure to return thousands of Native American human remains and hundreds of thousands of sacred cultural artifacts, as required by both federal and state law.
The hearing — scheduled for 9 a.m. in Room 1100 of the Capitol Annex Building at 1021 “O” Street — is a joint session of the Joint Legislative Audit Committee and the Assembly Select Committee on Native American Affairs.
Despite three critical audits over the past five years — in 2019, 2021, and most recently in April 2025 — UC has made limited progress in complying with the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), enacted more than 30 years ago, and a similar California law passed 24 years ago…