State audit says UC slow to repatriate Native American ancestors; UC pledges to finish remains by 2028

A state audit released in April 2025 found the University of California (UC) “lacks the accountability and the urgency necessary” to promptly return Native American human remains and cultural items, and the UC told a joint legislative hearing it will speed efforts to repatriate ancestors it controls and set firm campus and system timelines.

State Auditor Grant Parks opened the July hearing for the Joint Legislative Audit Committee and the Assembly Select Committee on Native American Affairs by summarizing the audit’s central finding: after multiple audits and oversight hearings dating back to 2020, UC campuses still hold thousands of Native American remains and hundreds of thousands of cultural items that may be subject to NAGPRA and CalNAGPRA. “The University of California unfortunately lacks the accountability and the urgency necessary to promptly return the remains and cultural items in their possession,” Parks said.

Why it matters

Tribal leaders, legislators and auditors at the hearing said the issue is both legal and moral: remains were collected without tribal consent and, under federal NAGPRA and California’s CalNAGPRA, should be returned. The audit found uneven campus practices, incomplete inventories, underused tribal assistance funds and a lack of systemwide performance metrics — all of which, auditors said, make timely repatriation unlikely without structural change. Tribal leaders told the committee they have waited decades for remains and objects that are central to ceremony, family history and spiritual obligations.

What the audit found

- The audit found that UC campuses continue to discover previously undocumented collections and that UC Office of the President (UCOP) has not set enforceable systemwide goals, timelines or performance metrics to ensure campuses complete repatriation in a timely way. Grant Parks said campuses’ existing repatriation plans often lack full, dated timelines and that UCOP’s oversight has…