NAGPRA

Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act

The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) requires Federal agencies or any institution receiving Federal funding to complete summaries (43 CFR 10.8) and inventories (43 CFR 10.9) for collections that include ancestral remains, funerary objects, sacred items, and objects of cultural patrimony, and to notify possible lineal descendants, culturally affiliated tribes, or Native Hawaiian Organizations. Holdings which include Native American ancestral remains, funerary objects, sacred items, and objects of cultural patrimony are subject to repatriation to lineal descendants, culturally affiliated tribes or Native Hawaiian Organizations.

In addition to Federal NAGPRA, all state funded agencies/museums/institutions in California are required to follow the California Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (CalNAGPRA). Oversight authority of CalNAGPRA is by the California Native American Heritage Commission (NAHC). All state funded entities are required to submit a Preliminary Inventory and Summary to the NAHC for all archaeological and ethnographic collections that originate from California, which will be published to the NAHC's website for review by tribes. The law also strengthens the ability of non-federally recognized California Native American tribes (as determined by the NAHC) to engage in the NAGPRA/CalNAGPRA process, places greater weight on tribal traditional knowledge in determining cultural affiliation and identifying cultural objects, and requires the NAHC to maintain a list of California Indian tribes and to adopt mediation procedures, among other measures.

California State University Dominguez Hills is committed to repatriation of relevant materials to Native American Tribal groups, and to fulfilling the University’s responsibilities under NAGPRA and CalNAGPRA. The staff of the Department of Anthropology, which holds relevant materials, are actively consulting with tribal representatives and performing other tasks necessary to repatriate ancestral remains to descendant communities.

For more information regarding NAGPRA, please visit the National NAGPRA website. For more information on CalNAGPRA, please visit the NAHC's CalNAGPRA website.

For questions regarding NAGPRA and CalNAGPRA at CSUDH, please contact the Dean of the College of Natural and Behavioral Sciences, Dr. Philip LaPolt, by email at plapolt@csudh.edu, telephone at (310) 243-2547 or mail at:

Dr. Philip LaPolt

College of Natural and Behavioral Sciences

Library North 5734

1000 East Victoria Street

Carson, CA 90747

CalNAGPRA Preliminary Summary and Inventory

CSUDH has submitted Preliminary Inventories and Summaries of our archaeological and ethnographic collections from California to the California Native American Heritage Commission (NAHC), as required under CalNAGPRA (Section 8013 of the Health and Safety Code). These inventories and summaries are now available for review on the NAHC's website (requires user to request an access code from NAHC). Prior to submission, the University invited tribes to review and offer comment on the draft Preliminary Inventory and Summary. Feedback received from tribes was reviewed by CSUDH and taken under advisement before the Preliminary Inventories and Summaries were submitted to the NAHC. Please contact Dr. Philip LaPolt (see contact information above) if you have any questions about the University’s Preliminary Inventories and Summaries, if you wish to schedule a consultation concerning any of our collections, or if you would like to request an Excel formatted copy of the Preliminary Inventories and Summaries submitted to the NAHC by CSUDH.

Published Notices

The table below provides a link to the Notice of Inventory Completion that the University has published in the Federal Register.

Site/Location	Type of Notice	Date Published	Status	Citation/Link
CA-LAN-1301	Notice of Inventory Completion	9/14/2004	Repatriated	Vol. 69, No. 177, Page 55457

CSUDH NAGPRA Policies & Procedures

CSUDH Police Department NAGPRA policy #392

The University will be developing a comprehensive NAGPRA and CalNAGPRA policy that will be posted here once it has been finalized and approved.

Links and Resources

CSUDH Resources

Department of Anthropology