Remains Of 12,000 American Indians Stored Under UC Berkeley Gym

There is a legend at the University of California, Berkeley, that human bones are stored in the landmark Campanile tower. But university officials say that's not true — the bones are actually stored beneath Hearst Gymnasium's swimming pool.

The remains of about 12,000 American Indians rest in drawers and cabinets in the gym's basement. Many of them were dug up by university archaeologists and have been stored under the pool since the early 1960s.

The bones now are at the center of a dispute between American Indians who want to rebury their ancestors and university officials who have been slow to hand over the remains.

Under the 1990 federal Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, the museum is required to identify the tribal origins of its bones and artifacts and return them to federally recognized tribes that request them.

So far, the museum has repatriated the bones of about 260 individuals. The museum's possession of so many remains troubles American Indians who believe that the spirits of their ancestors cannot rest until their bones are properly buried.

Lalo Franco, cultural heritage director of the Tachi Yokut tribe, calls the bones' current resting place "a dungeon" and the scientists who took them "grave robbers with a license." Full Story

Related: religion, wicca, pagan, spells