On October 10, 2023, California Governor Gavin Newsom – whose Democratic party claims to be the party of science and science education – signed two anti-science education bills (AB226 and AB389) into law, that require the University of California and the California State University systems to bar the use of skeletal collections that cannot be affiliated with any living descendants for research and teaching purposes.

AB 226 by Assemblyman James Ramos (D-San Bernardino), which applies to the University of California system – California’s research-focused public university system – states that “The University of California is strongly urged to prohibit use of any Native American human remains or cultural items for purposes of teaching or research at the University of California.” Even more egregiously, AB 389, also authored by Assemblyman James Ramos, which applies to the California State University system – California’s 23 campus public university system which focuses on teaching – includes the requirement to adopt “a policy that prohibits the use of Native American human remains or cultural items for the purposes of teaching or research at the California State University while in the possession of a California State University campus or museum.”

Teaching collections were never intended to be included in the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, the federal law regulating the repatriation and reburial of Native American human remains. Targeting teaching collections, such as in AB226 and AB389, will result in the gutting of anthropology labs that teach students the skills of osteological identification needed for careers in medicine, cultural resource management, and forensic sciences.

Forensic anthropologists and archaeologists have been key in helping identify the victims of some of the worst tragedies, such as the 9­/11 terrorist attacks. Their skills have been honed by learning skeleton anatomy on collections made up of intact bones, broken bones, burnt bones, and thousands of bone fragments.

[What hasn’t CA buried? ~ Beege]