Impacts of AB 389 on the Field of California Archaeology
Author(s): Eileen Skalky
Year: 2025
Summary
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2025: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.
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The enactment of the California Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (CalNAGPRA) in 2001 was ultimately engendered by a combination of rampant grave looting, public works projects, and university-based research in California’s early history. When California became a state in 1850, a war of extermination was waged on the Native populations wiping out 95% of all California Indians. In the late 19<sup>th</sup> century, “The Myth of the Vanishing Indian” was used to justify looting with wealthy figures like Phoebe Hearst and George Heye commissioning excavations all over the world to fill their museums. Public works projects throughout the years continued to add to the archaeological collections held at institutions until finally in 1990, the federal Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) was enacted. This law established a policy that required the repatriation of ancestral remains and cultural items to the affiliated federally recognized tribes. In 2001 CalNAGPRA was passed to include non-federally recognized tribes in the repatriation process. Due to the painstakingly slow repatriation of these items from the California State University system, AB 389 was introduced which prohibits the use of cultural items for research and teaching purposes. This research explores the impacts of this amendment.
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Cite this Record
Impacts of AB 389 on the Field of California Archaeology. Eileen Skalky. Presented at The 90th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. 2025 ( tDAR id: 511285)
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Record Identifiers
Abstract Id(s): 53844