UCLA Curator Reveals Unique Practice of Communicating with Native American Artifacts for Tribal Engagement

A curator at a University of California museum has revealed that staff engage in conversations with Native American artifacts as part of a practice requested by indigenous tribes.

During a recent webinar, Allison Fischer-Olson discussed the Fowler Museum’s initiatives to honor requests from Native tribes to interact with these historical objects.

The webinar addressed the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), a law mandating that public institutions must offer to return the remains of Native Americans to their descendants.

Under President Joe Biden’s administration in 2024, NAGPRA was expanded. Fischer-Olson noted that the amendments require public universities to consult with tribes on the culturally appropriate storage, treatment, and handling of ancestral remains and cultural artifacts.

Fischer-Olson elaborated that when asked about ‘culturally appropriate care,’ tribes sometimes request that university staff ‘visit’ and ‘speak to’ the artifacts.

‘Their communities know best in terms of how we should be caring for them while they are here with us,’ said Fischer-Olson, who is also the college’s repatriation coordinator.

‘Sometimes we are asked to periodically visit and talk to cultural items that may be considered relatives and shouldn’t be left alone or be so isolated,’ she added. 

Under the NAGPRA law, more than 760 cultural artifacts were returned from the Fowler Museum last month, according to the College Fix.

Allison Fischer-Olson, the UCLA repatriation coordinator and curator of Native American cultures at Fowler Museum, said on February 10 ‘Sometimes we are asked to periodically visit and talk to cultural items that may be considered relatives and shouldn’t be left alone or be so isolated’

‘I feel really grateful to be in the role I’m in within the museum and be able to really call out and speak to some of the unethical practices that museums and institutions like UCLA have engaged in previously,’ Fischer-Olson told ABC 7 in 2024 (Fowler Museum Pictured) 

‘We must make a good faith effort to incorporate any of these wishes articulated to us from tribes,’ Fischer-Olson continued. 

‘And we must seek free prior and informed consent prior to any access, any exhibition, any research on NAGPRA eligible ancestors or cultural items.’

Fischer-Olson, who is the curator of Native American cultures, described her duties under NAGPRA as ‘a lot of administrative work’ and speaking with tribes.

She also told ABC 7 in a 2024 interview about her position for an article about helping Native Americans reclaim their ancestral remains.

‘I feel really grateful to be in the role I’m in within the museum and be able to really call out and speak to some of the unethical practices that museums and institutions like UCLA have engaged in previously,’ she said. 

‘And actually have an avenue for starting to right those wrongs, and also to ensure that we are putting processes and practices in place to make sure that we do not do them again.’

In the seminar, Fischer-Olson went into detail on operations at the Fowler Museum on February 10 and on some of the conditions Native American tribes request

Also discussed was the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) a law enacted in the 1990s to return Native American human remains to their tribes, but has come under fire recently for abuse of power

The curator is responsible for ensuring consultation with tribes, repatriation, disposition, and tribal access to Human Remains and Cultural Items, according to her biography on the museum’s website.

A virtual tour of the museum shows a piece by Lazaro Arvizu Jr. titled Sand Acknowledgement.

The piece by Arvizu is his response to performative land acknowledgements that yield no notable outcomes.

A land acknowledgement is an increasingly common practice that recognizes an area as the traditional homeland of indigenous peoples.

The Daily Mail has reached out to Allison Fischer-Olson for comment.