Notice of Inventory Completion: California State University, Stanislaus, Turlock, CA

California State University, Stanislaus Prepares to Return Native American Human Remains Under NAGPRA

Four individuals whose remains were collected over a century ago near the Columbia River in Oregon are slated for repatriation by California State University, Stanislaus, following a formal inventory completion notice published on federalregister.gov. The collection, which lacks any associated funerary objects, has been housed at the university since 2005 after being brought to the campus by Laurence Wragg. According to the federal filings, these remains were previously kept at the Northwestern University Dental School in Chicago, Illinois, as part of the William Bebb collection, having been originally gathered by George H. Nottage of Oregon sometime prior to 1904.

Establishing Cultural Affiliation and Eligible Tribes

Through geographical location and detailed acquisition history, the university determined a clear cultural affiliation between the human remains and specific tribal nations. The administrative determinations identify connections to the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation, the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon, and the Cowlitz Indian Tribe. The university reports no awareness of any treatments involving pesticides or hazardous preservatives applied to the remains during their decades in academic and museum collections.

The Repatriation Timeline and Claim Process

Formal written requests for the return of the remains must be directed to Jake Malsbury, the NAGPRA/CalNAGPRA Repatriation Coordinator at California State University, Stanislaus. Eligible claimants include any of the officially identified tribes, lineal descendants, or other Native Hawaiian organizations or tribes that can demonstrate cultural affiliation by a preponderance of the evidence. Repatriation actions can legally proceed on or after November 30, 2026. In the event of competing claims, the university is responsible for determining the appropriate requestor, while joint repatriation requests are handled as a single unified filing under 43 CFR 10.10 and the broader framework of 25 U.S.C. 3003.