One year after blistering audit, CSU schools are hiring staff to give back Native American artifacts, remains

Campuses in California’s largest public university system are moving faster to meet legal requirements that they return Native American cultural artifacts and human remains. The approach: Hire staff to make it happen.

Both state and federal laws require universities to return what they have been holding around for decades.

In a report released in June of last year, the California State Auditor said the California State University was not acting with enough urgency to return nearly 700,000 Native American artifacts and human remains housed at CSU campuses. Among other shortcomings, the audit said, the CSU Chancellor's Office had not done enough to make sure there was appropriate staffing at campuses to prioritize repatriation.

Since January, more than a half dozen CSU campuses have posted jobs to carry out that work. Four of those campuses are in Southern California.

The 2023 California State Auditor faulted CSU on it's Native American repatriation efforts.

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Screenshot of California State audit

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“It's a sense of moving forward and healing on the Native American perspective,” said Assemblymember James Ramos, the chair of the Native American legislative caucus. “It's time that those remains get properly re-burial, put back into the ground… and then healing could start with those communities."

The federal law is called Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA). California’s version of the law, which includes additional provisions, is called CalNAGPRA. Here's the CSU page with job listings.

What does a job require? What does it pay?

The repatriation coordinator jobs largely require four-year university degrees in anthropology, museum studies, Native American studies, historic preservation, or other related fields. They also require experience as an administrator, as well as knowledge of state and federal repatriation laws.

But possibly the most important qualification is experience working with and effectively communicating with Native American communities.

The salary ranges are wide.

The NAGPRA coordinator CSU Los Angeles pays between $47,000 and $140,000. At CSU Dominguez Hills, a job listing for a repatriation program coordinator offers a salary between $78,000 and $84,000.

CSU East Bay’s spokesperson said the university’s full-time repatriation coordinator starts July 1. (Salary range: $65K-$75K)

Which universities are making progress?

While some campuses are now adding repatriation coordinators, some, like Cal State Fullerton, are further along and are adding support staff to the office.

“We also hired another full-time individual," said Megan Lonski, who has been CSU Fullerton’s repatriation coordinator since fall 2022.

A 2023 California State audit detailed CSU's Native American holdings.

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Screenshot from California State audit

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In addition to the communication with tribes to repatriate the Native American ancestors and cultural items, there’s a looming deadline for campuses this winter. That’s when state and federal repatriation laws require other universities to submit summaries describing what items are housed on their campuses.

New staffing has been “absolutely critical to this process,” Lonski said.

Four people are working on it: Lonski and a February hire, both working full time, and two part time graduate student assistants.

“It's a huge priority for here for us and we're making good progress,” Lonski said.

A CSU Long Beach spokesperson said via email that the university is in the final phase of the hiring process for a full-time tribal cultural collections manager. A listing for the job said the person hired would work with the tribal relations office on campus, as well as with tribes, library archives and the university anthropology museum to identify, label, and care for cultural items.

CSU Long Beach also said they want students to experience the work. The university opened unpaid summer internships this summer to learn about NAGPRA and how to care for Native American items housed at the university.

Full disclosure: Adolfo Guzman-Lopez holds an adjunct faculty position at CSU Long Beach.