In October of 2007, Chancellor Birgeneau had to answer to a group of disenfranchised Native American activists and UC faculty members after a controversial Heart Museum decision ignored requests by various native nations to return ancestral remains to their rightful tribal owners. After an unjust shift in the legislation kicked out tribal representatives from the museum’s democratic process the university has been able to persistently harbor the bones inside the museum. Tribal leaders have said that, “UC Berkeley doesn’t give a damn about native people living today” and that the university refuses to acknowledge the spiritual importance of the bones.