Among the 130 remains are forty-eight human skulls, twenty-six ribs, twenty-one vertebrae, and a collection of femurs, hands and feet, tibias, and teeth. They have been locked up inside the de Young Museum.
FAMSF is deaccessioning all Native American human remains and will continue to care for these remains until they are repatriated to affiliated communities per NAGPRA (which was accepted in 1991, so FAMSF is doing this more than three decades later).
See FAMSF statement about this:
Comment by Te Herekiekie Herewini: Kia ora (Greetings), the attached news report seems a bit misleading, as we (Karanga Aotearoa Repatriation Programme based at Te Papa) repatriated our Māori ancestral remains from the de Young Museum in 2018.
It is also important to know that the repatriation programme I am part off, has the following specific requirements before Maori and Moriori ancestral remains can be repatriated. The first is that their provenance needs to be confirmed as Maori or Moriori, and originating from Aotearoa New Zealand or Rekohu Chatham Islands. In some situations, confirmation of provenance can take several years to verify.
