Title: KCRC Claim Chancellors House Burials
1KCRC ClaimChancellors House Burials
- 1976 field excavation under Professor Gail
Kennedy of UCLA with a student crew from
CSU-Northridge. - Double burial found intact and in remarkably good
condition a male, aged 33-44, and a female, aged
40-54. The two were on their sides in a reversed,
flexed position - Calibrated dates from the Pretoria radiocarbon
lab for the remains fall between 8,977 and 9,603
years B.P. Represents some of the earliest known
human remains from either North or South America.
2What is cultural affiliation?
NAGPRA 43 C.F.R. 10.2 (e)
- A relationship of shared group identity which can
reasonably be traced historically or
prehistorically between members of a present-day
Indian tribe or Native Hawaiian organization and
an identifiable earlier group. - Established when the preponderance of the
evidence reasonably leads to such a conclusion. - Types of evidence geographical, kinship,
biological, archeological, linguistic, folklore,
oral tradition, historical evidence, or other
information or expert opinion
3Criteria for cultural affiliationAll of the
following requirements must be met
NAGPRA 43 C.F.R. 10.14 (c)
- (1) Existence of an identifiable present-day
Indian tribe or Native Hawaiian organization with
standing - (2) Evidence of the existence of an identifiable
earlier group. - (3) Evidence of the existence of a shared group
identity that can be reasonably traced between
the present-day and the earlier group. - Evidence to support this requirement must
establish that a present-day Indian tribe or
Native Hawaiian organization has been identified
from prehistoric or historic times to the present
as descending from the earlier group.
4Culturally unidentifiable at this time
- We readily concede that an absence of evidence
for cultural affiliation is not equivalent to
affirmative evidence for non-affiliation. - Five hundred generations of intervening time
leave ample room for numerous episodes of genetic
drift and decisive, even fundamental, cultural
innovations and shifts. - The highly imperfect and incomplete record of
temporal sequencing of archaeological remains
contains little to argue for or against such
affiliation. - Simply stated, our finding is that there is not
a significant preponderance of evidence to
support an affirmation of cultural identification
or affiliation with any modern group.
5must establish that a present-day Indian tribe
has been identified from prehistoric times to the
present as descending from the earlier group
- The Folklore and Oral Tradition can be
interpreted in several ways but it is not
possible, at least at this time, to establish the
time depth to which these traditions apply and
how they relate, if at all, to the individuals
who lived in the region 10,000 years ago. - Cultural identity cannot be proved or disproved
on the basis of folkore and oral tradition at a
level beyond 2,000 years in the absence of
written records, to the best of our knowledge.
6must establish that a present-day Indian tribe
has been identified from prehistoric times to the
present as descending from the earlier group
- Hokan is the oldest linguistic phylum among
western North American languages with a time
depth of ca. 8,000 years. - Most of the other language families of California
show substratal influence from one or more Hokan
languages. - However, the Yuman family of eight closely
related languages diversified within the last two
millennia.
7must establish that a present-day Indian tribe
has been identified from prehistoric times to the
present as descending from the earlier group
- In sum, the genetic evidence thus far argues for
an original peopling of North America around
15,000 years ago with rapid population expansion
followed by isolation of local populations,
presumably adapted to their specific
environments. - The combination of linguistic and genetic
evidence argues for an ancient immigration (late
Pleistocene or early Holocene) of the
proto-Chumash along the Pacific Coast with
settlement perhaps throughout central and
southern California, - followed by influxes of Hokan speakers, with
subsequent movement of Uto-Aztecan and Yuman
speakers into the region during the middle to
late Holocene.
8must establish that a present-day Indian tribe
has been identified from prehistoric times to the
present as descending from the earlier group
- The Late Prehistoric pattern of San Diego is
generally considered to have started between 1300
and 800 B.P. - Artifacts include small pressure-flaked
projectile points with the introduction of the
bow and arrow, inhumations are replaced with
cremations, and ceramic technology appeared.
Subsistence changes involved acorn processing and
a shift to smaller resources that were more
numerous. - The appearance of new traits (particularly
cremations, ceramics, and the bow and arrow)
occurred earlier in the east than the west and
very late or minimally on the coast. - It appears likely that these technologies and
customs spread westward with the Yuman speakers
ancestral to the Kumeyaay.
9Minority position the problem of descent
NAGPRA 43 C.F.R. 10.14 (d) (f)
- (d) A finding of cultural affiliation should be
based upon an overall evaluation of the totality
of the circumstances and evidence pertaining to
the connection between the claimant and the
material being claimed and should not be
precluded solely because of some gaps in the
record. - (f) Standard of proof. Lineal descent of a
present-day individual from an earlier individual
and cultural affiliation of a present-day Indian
tribe to human remains must be established by a
preponderance of the evidence. Claimants do not
have to establish cultural affiliation with
scientific certainty.
10cultural, not biologicaldescent
- Cultural argument Kumeyaay are the inheritors
of the culture of the preceding population
through a process of interaction that may never
be precisely "scientifically" known. Took on
responsibility towards this place and its
peoples. - Evaluation interdisciplinary analysis of NAGPRA
categories of evidence to address whether
Kumeyaay cultural world view expresses shared
identity to identifiable early group.
11cultural, not biological
- Kumeyaay use of the area predates European
settler society by a millennium. - Agreed upon map of Kumeyaay occupation and
cultural influence. - Kumeyaay avow a deep sense of personal and
communal responsibility for the recovery and
proper reburial of all human remains of people
who predate European settler society. - Their approach towards the dead is documented in
- early Spanish accounts of the Kumeyaay
- anthropological literature of the last century .
- Cultural imperative expressed collectively by the
KCRC through appointed repatriation
representatives from each Kumeyaay tribe in San
Diego County.
12next steps...
- educate campus about grounds for rejecting the
UCAD NAGPRA ad-hoc advisory committees majority
recommendation - urge campus administration to appeal the case to
the NAGPRA Review Board in partnership with KCRC