TSQ NEWS FALL 1989
STANFORD NEWS: STANFORD TO RETURN INDIAN REMAINS TO DESCENDANTS

In what may be the first action of its kind by a major university, Stanford will return the skeletal remains of about 550 Indians from its museum to elders of the Ohlone Costanoan people, Provost James Rosse has disclosed.

"Because universities place great value on freedom on inquiry, the decision to support reinterment has been difficult," Rosse wrote to the Ohlone elders.

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Anne Medicine
Assistant Dean, Graduate Division, Stanford

"I know what a difficult decision it was for the University to make. I hope to continue to help other tribes understand how important it is to cooperate with universities so things happen in a good way for everyone."

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"If any of the Stanford collection can be demonstrated to have research significance, we will request your consent to a specified period for scholarly analysis before reburial. However... the final decision about whether to permit such research will be up to the Oholone community."

Return of the remians was approved unanimously earlier this year by both the anthropology faculty, chaired by Prof. James Lowell Gibbs Jr., and by a provost's advisory committee on campus archacology, headed by Prof. Walter Falcon, senior associate dean of humanities and sciences. It also was approved by Rosse, the University's chief academic officer, and reported to the AdministrativeCouncil, which includes the Univesity's vice presidents and other officials.

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Rosemary Cambra (Ohlone)
Representative for the Ohlone

...said she was "very, very happy"
Stanford has agreed to respect the religious rights of the Indians...

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"The debute was thoughtful wide and deep" said Falcon. But in the end. "We came down very strongly that this was the night time and the right thing for this institution to do." Operational plans approved by Rosse note that Stanford University is committed to maintaning a community in which diverse religious beliefs and cultural traditions are respected by all. We recognize that traditional Indian religious beliefs hold ancestral remains to be sacred...

"By foregiving opportunities to use human skeletal collectives, we find ourselves in conflict with two important University goals; to encourage new research and to preserve collections of scholarly materials. Currently, with the Ohlone Indians'persmission, San Jose State anthropologists are studing one of Stanford's collections (Ryan Mound), and the University is undertaking an inventory of its other collections. Upon completion of the inventory and research assessment, estimated for mid-1989, we anticipate the immmediate return of most ancestral remians in Stanford's Collections.

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Larry Myrers, Executive Secretary
Native American Heritage Communicate
Sacrimento, California

"This decision actually puts Stanford several steps ahead of where the nation appears to be going. Most california public colleges and universities have collections of Indian remains."

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"We intend to request permission of the appropriate Indian groups to conduct research on one or more collections prior to reburtal will be left to the culturally related tribal community."

Falcon said the "thought fullness and respect" shown by Indian representatives through months of private discussion were "very impressive. Anyone who believes resolution of these issues is easy hasn't really thought about them," he added.

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Larry Myers, Executive Secretary
Native American Heritage Commission
Sacrements, California

"We just can't permit people to continue to abuse Indian feelings about the dead."

550 Muwekma Ohlone Ancestral Indian Remians Repatriated form Stanford University and Returned to the Muwekma Ohlone Tribal Descendants in 1990