Cal State Fullerton promised a big space for Native American repatriation, then removed the leaders planning it

In the first months of 2023, California State University, Fullerton seemed poised to make progress on the repatriation of Native American cultural artifacts and human remains.

University administrators, staff, and others identified a location to conduct repatriation work on campus. It would be a place that Native Americans help create and be devoted to their work to bring ancestors back to their tribes for re-burial.

“The sixth floor of the library would balance having a secure location for ancestral remains and associated funerary collections, until repatriation,” said now-former Vice Provost Estela Zarate via email.

The library would allow access to the artifacts and ancestors, she said, and once built out, the space would be a place where Native Americans could collaborate on repatriation work as well as pray.

But in February 2023, momentum hit a wall. Carolyn Thomas, a longtime university administrator who put Zarate in charge of repatriation, was removed from her provost job. Three months later, Zarate, who holds a PhD in education, was informed that her position was being eliminated, she told LAist.

The two administrators’ ousting and the impact it had underlines a problem familiar to repatriation experts: the need for more consistent leadership at campuses to ensure cultural items and ancestors are returned faster to Native American tribes.

What progress had been made?

A state audit released in June 2023 revealed that the Cal State University system had not complied with state and federal repatriation laws, falling short on funding, staff, and policies to support repatriation.

Cal State Fullerton was one of those underwhelming campuses. But, as the auditors wrote, the school said it had started "organizing its collections to allow for long‑term storage and easier identification." And in September 2022, Fullerton hired Megan Lonski as the university’s first full-time repatriation coordinator. Zarate said her repatriation work with Lonski was driven in large part by social justice.

“My scholarship has examined how historically marginalized communities are served/underserved by education institutions and in that context, I understood the significance of this work,” Zarate said.

Lonski and Zarate created a repatriation advisory committee that included representatives from area tribes. Zarate said she and Lonski, along with the committee, drafted the university’s first repatriation policy. The 2023 audit revealed that only half of the CSU campuses had such a committee and even fewer had tribal members in that committee and just a handful had adopted a campus repatriation policy.

Native Americans who had watched Cal State Fullerton’s repatriation efforts advance and regress said something was different in early 2023.

“I was pleasantly surprised because it appeared that they were now understanding the importance of complying with the law,” said Joyce Perry, a member of Cal State Fullerton’s repatriation advisory committee and cultural resource director of the Juaneño Band of Mission Indians, Acjachemen Nation-Belardes.

To Perry, the library space was a forward-thinking and dignified approach.

“[Zarate] guaranteed us that this attempt is not going to lose its momentum and that we will get this done, that the University is committed to this process,” Perry said.

What were the plans for a repatriation space?

According to a copy of the blueprint obtained by LAist, the space would have been about 4,700 square feet. Much of the space would house about 4,200 boxes containing Native American items in the university’s possession, plus work tables. The other third of the space, according to the blueprint, would have been mostly taken up by three rooms: a green room, a meeting room/office, and another room in which boxes with the ancestors would be kept.

“Those elements were to house the ancestors and make it a space where we could come and speak to anthropologists about them and or pray,” Perry said, “It just was going to be something that was designed specifically for our needs.”

In March 2023, President Framroze Virjee appointed Amir Dabirian as provost, replacing Thomas. Virjee stepped down as university president four months later. Virjee did not respond to an email requesting comment about the removal of Thomas and Zarate and whether he considered how their departure would affect repatriation efforts.

In the months after Dabirian took over, it was clear the library buildout would not happen.

“The new provost came in and scratched it and said that's over,” said Carl Wendt, a longtime professor of archaeology at Cal State Fullerton and member of the repatriation committee.

Instead, the school set its sights on basement storage in one of the campus' academic buildings.

“We went from having this multimillion dollar buildout in this great location to, ‘You're gonna get this old store room, we're going to clear this stuff out,'" Wendt said.

Was that a broken promise?

“We're so accustomed to that… it almost goes without saying in almost any institution that we work with,” Perry said.

However, she said, Dabirian assured her the scuttling of the library plan would not affect the university’s repatriation momentum.

“As long as we were getting our needs met, and ultimately bringing our ancestors and their belongings home and back into Mother Earth, that really is our biggest concern,” she said.

How did the new provost change the plans?

CSUF said it was made aware of LAist’s email to Virjee and that he wouldn’t be able to answer questions, but current Provost Dabirian would. LAist described the blueprint to the provost, who didn’t deny its contents.

But Dabirian recalled the elimination of the library plan differently.

“When I came in, I gave [the repatriation committee] an alternative and I worked hard to secure spaces,” Dabirian said.

The library buildout, he said, would cost about $3 million and take one to two years to complete. He said he proposed the use of rooms in the basement of McCarthy Hall, one of the original campus buildings from the early 1960s, because they presented both a more long-term and immediate plan for the cultural artifacts and ancestors. He also said the basement had better climate control.

“We did not say, ‘We will not do Plan A.’ We said ‘We wanna try Plan B, which is better,’” he said.

Committee members, including tribal members, visited the basement and agreed it was better, Dabirian added.

“We got confirmation before we moved forward. So to me that's not a broken promise,” he said.

Dabirian said Zarate reported to him and he informed her that her services as an administrator would no longer be needed. He would not comment further on the removal of the vice provost.

Repatriation is a process that involves extensive negotiations with tribes and meticulous accounting of what universities have, Dabirian said. He also said his campus is making great strides in the return to tribes of what is theirs, although he could not give a timeline of when that process may be completed.

What comes next?

News of Zarate and Thomas’ removal and its effect on repatriation reached California’s most powerful Native American legislator.

“Consistent leadership is one factor in ensuring that reparation is performed thoughtfully and thoroughly,” Assemblymember James Ramos told LAist via email.

Ramos said he continues to have questions about “what steps CSU and UC are taking to institutionalize and prioritize the return of Native American human remains and artifacts so the process may continue without interruptions despite changes in leadership.”

Ramos’ office said a public hearing is planned for next month so that leaders of the CSU and UC systems can tell policymakers what progress they’re making.

Wendt, the professor, said his concerns that relations with tribes would be affected by the change in plans have not come to pass. Responding to Dabirian’s account of the library and basement plans, Perry said she would have liked the library buildout, but is happy with the current allocation of rooms in McCarthy Hall’s basement.

“Out of all the institutions we’re working with, Cal State Fullerton is the most aggressive and progressive in working with our tribe with the intention of returning our ancestors to us,” she said.

“Their actions have spoken louder than their words,” she said.