Senators accuse UC - Berkeley of discrimination and secrecy over
ancestral remains Email this page Print this page
Posted: February 29, 2008
by: Shadi Rahimi
SACRAMENTO, Calif. - In a powerful show of support, state senators are
rebuking the University of California - Berkeley for refusing to return
thousands of Native human remains held in storage, calling the actions
of university officials discriminatory.
Sen. Dean Florez, D-Shafter, chairman of the Senate Committee on
Governmental Organization, said in a Feb. 27 letter addressed to UC -
Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau that he had been inclined to give
university officials ''the benefit of the doubt,'' but he was
''appalled'' after testimonies at a hearing at the state Capitol
Feb. 26.
University officials ''systematically'' excluded Natives from
''having any involvement'' in a decision to eliminate a unit at the
Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology - which houses the
second-largest Native collection in the nation - that had helped tribes
reclaim ancestral items under the Native American Graves Protection and
Repatriation Act.
rest at
http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096416730
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Tribes seek Native American remains
[...]
At a hearing on the matter, incoming California Senate leader Darrell
Steinberg accused the university of discrimination.
"If there were remains of my ancestors, European Americans, in the
Hearst museum at one of the most respected universities in the country,
there would be an absolute outcry from people," Steinberg said at
Tuesday's hearing. "But because they're Native American remains,
somehow it is different."
rest at
http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Top_News/2008/02/27/tribes_seek_native_american_remains/3300/
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LA Times coverage at--
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/california/la-me-bones27feb27,1,6882753.story
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