Judy: The looting and excavation
of -- excavating of native
American grades and sites.
The collecting, studying and
exhibiting of human remains and
sacred objects.
This has been a source of bitter
relations between many American
cultural institutions and native
tribes, even as laws and
practices have begun to change.
Jeffrey brown reports from
Berkeley, California, for our
arts and culture series, canvas.
>> We start off with our most
traditional food, which is black
oak acorn soup.
Jeffrey: It was a meal of the
past.
>> This is a food that has
sustained our ohlone people for
thousands upon thousands of
years.
Jeffrey: And present.
>> Cowgirl creamery triple-cream
cheese.
Jeffrey: This was a special
gathering of the new "Cafe Ohl
one" just outside the
anthropology museum at the
university of California,
Berkeley.
The space is now called "Ottoy"
which means "To amend or repair"
in the chochenyo language, and
this was a celebration for
co-founder Vincent Medina and
other members of his ohlone
tribe.
But also something more.
>> When I was a child, I
remember first hearing about our
ancestors that were being held
here at this university.
Jeffrey: Just days before,
Medina spoke of the deep
historical trauma that gives the
location of his new cafe such
meaning now.
>> I remember there was an elder
that was there who was just
pointing her finger.
I could never forget that.
And she said that the university
of California, Berkeley, is
holding onto thousands of our
ancestors that they had removed
from their cemeteries.
Jeffrey: The actual remains.
>> Yes.
And I remember that elder told
me, I must have been 10 or 11
years old at the time, and she
said, there is nothing that we
could do about it right now.
Jeffrey: Recent DNA studies
suggest ohlone people have lived
in what is now the San Francisco
bay area for at least 2000 years
, part of a long history of
once-thriving California tribes
decimated and marked by
genocide, discrimination and
-- discrimination and exclusion.
The university sitting on ohlone
land, is part of that history
too.
Like research institutions
elsewhere, it's scholars such as
famed anthropologist Alfred
kroeber, long collected, studied
and exhibited native remains and
artifacts.
>> It was kind of routine
professional practice.
But they only took certain
people.
They weren't taking -- there's
not large collections of early
pioneers.
There's sort of this collection
of people from marginalized
communities.
The disenfranchised.
It is part of a larger context
of scientific racism in the
field and in many fields in
biomedicine and in anthropology.
Jeffrey: Sabrina Agarwal is a
bio-archeologist and professor
of anthropology at Berkeley.
She studied and trained under
the old system, but is now part
of a new movement in her field
which she refers to as
restorative justice.
>> You have to change
professional practice and
institutional policies and
process, which is what we have
done.
Jeffrey: The native American
graves and protection and
repatriation act, or nagpra, was
signed into federal law in 1990,
to govern the handling and, in
many cases, return of human
remains, sacred objects and
other cultural patrimony.
But it applies only to
federally-recognized tribes,
leaving out many smaller ones.
California has had its own
version on the books since 2001.
But native tribes have long
complained of being ignored and
confronted with barriers.
What items count as sacred, for
example, into decides?
-- And who decides?
And of scientific scholarship
being privileged over tribal
knowledge, which was often
passed down in an oral
tradition.
Ohlone elder Andrew Galvan, who
himself became a curator at old
-- at old mission Dolores in San
Francisco, has fought this
system for decades.
>> Over time, I did find some
researchers that were very
honest and very sincere.
And yes, there can be many
things that I learned from
research.
But the way the collections were
treated, the way they were
stored.
Whereas, nothing against
students, but a 19-year-old
undergrad could have access to
the skeletal remains of our
ancestors for his or her
research, and we couldn't even
see them.
Jeffrey: As recently as 2020, a
California nagpra audit strongly
criticized uc Berkeley, even as
compared with other California
universities, for failing to
return many of the thousands of
items it continues to hold.
Including remains in storage
cabinets on campus.
But change is now happening.
One small sign, under new
collection guidelines, we were
not permitted to show the
physical holdings, as we might
have in the past.
Sabrina Agarwal, who now heads
Berkeley's nagpra campus
committee, charged with
implementing the law, adds this.
>> I think we have had a shift
in realizing we are not the
experts.
It is the people whose history
that we are interested in, which
are the experts.
And if they are still alive
they are the people we need to
learn from and listen to.
Jeffrey: One notable
repatriation occurred earlier
this year.
The return of remains of at
least 20 members of the northern
California wiyot tribe, victims
of an 1860 massacre.
Ted Hernandez is the tribea™™s
-- the tribe's historic
preservation officer.
>> It was important, because to
have our ancestors in boxes
where they did not belong, and
we knew they were from the
massacre, that they needed to
come home and they need to be
with their families in the
sacred sites that we keep secret
for the tribe.
Your family is not connected
unless you are altogether.
In our culture, family is you
need -- is unity.
That's what keeps us strong,
that's what keeps us bonded
together.
Jeffrey: A large storage
facility near berkeleya™™s campus
contains thousands of native
artifacts still to be resolved.
Now classified as sacred, the
university no longer displays
them publicly.
We were given permission by the
wiyot tribe to film these
baskets.
After the critical 2020 audit,
Tom Torma, a non-native who
previously worked with the wiyot
tribe to get its remains
returned from Berkeley, was
hired by the university to help
it facilit ate future returns
for all tribes.
He has been on both, once
opposing sides.
Now he believes working
together.
>> That's a real sea change,
that active encouragement and
actively seeking to repatriate.
My mandate from the university
is to get all the ancestors
home.
As opposed to "Keep as many as
we can."
And that is a massive seachange.
Jeffrey: Some, like Andrew
Galvan, remain skeptical.
>> It still to me feels just the
same, lipservice.
We want to give you these things
back, but we can't.
Because.
Jeffrey: It still feels that
way.
>> It still feels that way.
Jeffrey: By all accounts, the
process is just beginning.
Last year, Alfred kroeber's name
was removed from the
anthropology building.
One symbolic gesture.
Another, perhaps, the new cafe
next door.
But for co-founder Vincent
Medina, who also now works with
the university as an outside
member of its repatriation
committee, symbolic change is
important too.
>> What it is going to be doing
right here on campus is to be a
constant reminder that the
ohlone people, that we are still
here.
That our culture is beautiful,
that our culture is valuable.
That it is not something of the
past, it is something of the
present as well.
Jeffrey: For the pbs newshour, I