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Vice chair of Senate Committee on Indian Affairs urges universities and museums to return Native remains
Summary
The vice chair of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs said major universities and museums are still holding human remains and cultural objects taken from Native communities, including Native Hawaiians, and that the committee has sent bipartisan letters urging compliance with federal law. Some institutions have begun repatriation work; others have been slow and were the subject of a follow-up letter.
The vice chair of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs said the committee has pressed major universities and museums to return human remains and cultural objects taken from Native communities, including the Native Hawaiian community, and warned that some institutions have been slow to comply with federal law.
"Major universities and colleges and museums are still holding on to stolen remains from Native communities," the vice chair said, adding, "we sent a bipartisan letter to a number of these institutions and some of them have started the process of complying, working with tribes and Native American organizations, with the Native Hawaiian communities to send these objects back." The vice chair said the panel followed with another letter to "expose these universities that claim to care about Native people, but are being very slow to comply with the federal law. They need to send these items back."
The statement said the initial, bipartisan outreach prompted some institutions to begin consultations with tribes and Native organizations to arrange returns. The vice chair did not name the institutions contacted or provide a count of how many were reached. The committee also said a second letter was sent to highlight institutions that have lagged in taking steps to repatriate items.
The vice chair described the effort as enforcement of a federal requirement that institutions return human remains and certain cultural objects to Native communities; the transcript did not cite a specific statute or identify any immediate enforcement action beyond the letters. The statement did not announce a vote or a formal committee action beyond the correspondence.
The committee's remarks emphasized that repatriation affects Native communities broadly and specifically named the Native Hawaiian community as among those with items still held by collections. The vice chair said the committee expected institutions to accelerate consultations and returns and indicated the committee would continue its oversight through additional correspondence and public exposure of slow compliance.
