(a) A lineal descendent claiming a relationship with, and requesting return of, Native American human remains or cultural items listed in the inventory or summary of an agency or museum, or that requests the return of human remains or cultural items that are not listed in the inventory or summary of an agency or museum but that are believed to be in the possession or control of the agency or museum, shall do both of the following:

(1) File a claim for the human remains and cultural items with the commission and with the agency or museum believed to have possession or control.

Terms Used In California Health and Safety Code 8014

  • Agency: means a division, department, bureau, commission, board, council, city, county, city and county, district, or other political subdivision of the state. See California Health and Safety Code 8012
  • California Indian tribe: means a tribe located in California to which either of the following applies:

    California Health and Safety Code 8012

  • Commission: means the Native American Heritage Commission established pursuant to §. See California Health and Safety Code 8012
  • Common law: The legal system that originated in England and is now in use in the United States. It is based on judicial decisions rather than legislative action.
  • Control: means having ownership of Native American human remains and cultural items sufficient to lawfully permit an agency or museum to treat the object as part of its collection for purposes of this chapter, whether or not the human remains and cultural items are in the physical custody of the agency or museum. See California Health and Safety Code 8012
  • Descendent: One who is directly descended from another such as a child, grandchild, or great grandchild.
  • Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
  • Inventory: means an itemized list that summarizes the collection of Native American human remains and associated funerary objects in the possession or control of an agency or museum. See California Health and Safety Code 8012
  • Museum: means an agency, museum, person, or entity, including a higher educational institution, that receives state funds. See California Health and Safety Code 8012
  • Possession: means having physical custody of Native American human remains and cultural items with a sufficient legal interest to lawfully treat the human remains and cultural items as part of a collection. See California Health and Safety Code 8012
  • State: means the State of California, unless applied to the different parts of the United States. See California Health and Safety Code 23
  • State aboriginal territory: means lands identified as aboriginally occupied by one or more California Indian tribes. See California Health and Safety Code 8012
  • State cultural affiliation: means that there is a reasonable relationship of shared group identity that can reasonably be traced historically or precontact between members of a present-day California Indian tribe and an identifiable earlier tribe or group. See California Health and Safety Code 8012
  • Summary: means a document that summarizes the collection of unassociated funerary objects, sacred objects, or objects of cultural patrimony in the possession or control of an agency or museum. See California Health and Safety Code 8012

(2) Demonstrate that the claimant can trace their ancestry directly and without interruption by means of the traditional kinship or village system of the appropriate California Indian tribe, or by the common law system of descendancy, to a known individual whose human remains or cultural items are being claimed.

(b) A California Indian tribe claiming a relationship, state cultural affiliation, or state aboriginal territory with, and requesting return of, human remains or cultural items listed in the inventory or summary of an agency or museum, or that requests the return of human remains or cultural items that are not listed in the inventory or summary of an agency or museum but that are believed to be in the possession or control of the agency or museum, shall do both of the following:

(1) File a claim for the human remains and cultural items with the commission and with the agency or museum believed to have possession or control.

(2) Demonstrate one or both of the following:

(A) There is a relationship of shared group identity that can reasonably be traced historically or precontact with an earlier identifiable group from which the human remains or cultural items originated and the claiming California Indian tribe. Evidence of state cultural affiliation need not be provided when reasonably established by a finding published in the Federal Register, in compliance with the federal Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (25 U.S.C. § 3001 et seq.).

(B) The human remains or cultural items were removed from the state aboriginal territory of the claiming California Indian tribe.

(Repealed and added by Stats. 2020, Ch. 167, Sec. 8. (AB 275) Effective January 1, 2021.)

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