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Published online 21 November 2007 | Nature 450, 469 (2007) | doi:10.1038/450469a
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Proposal raises bones of contention
Anthropologists lobby to retain Native Indian skeletons for study.
Alarm is growing among anthropologists in the United States over a plan that could empty institutions of about 120,000 human skeletons currently stored for research purposes.
Under a new proposal, the bones at museums, universities and federal facilities across the nation could be given to Native American tribes now living in the area from which the remains were excavated, even if the skeletons are not culturally identifiable to the tribes.
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When I accompanied a Spiritual Leader to the Smithsonian Museum, there was an evident sadness of energy in the storage Quonset where they were kept before the new facility was built in DC. I noticed even the staff there was happy that someone was there to pray. I questioned the staff and they one by one, told of different incidences' that have happened throughout their employment, meaning activity. They totally believed that the spirits existed in the facility. I am aware of the NAGPRA law in repatriating the remains, but that is if the Tribe does decide to retrieve the bones and if they have the funding and people in place. I entered one room and was told it was from an extinct tribe, the staff told of an old woman that some had seen around the room. I left that place feeling bad for those Nations that are extinct and have no relatives to retrieve them. I felt it was not fair for them never to return to earth as all People in the world would wish their own People to be able to do, but rather sit in boxes and shelves for decades, maybe centuries to come. I imagined a huge burial mound, in honor of all those that have lost all their People, or others, whose People have no interest to take them home, naming their Nations, in memory of the footsteps that once nurtured the land. A Monument; naming each and every one of their Nations, recognizing they once lived and now are able to go back to where they deserve, Grandmother Earth. I feel that we are still responsible for them, as the People of this Turtle Island. I am aware of the collector of that particular Quonset that was donated to the Smithsonian, he was a man that paid grave robbers, obsessed with using his millions into a collection of bones and possessions once sacred to a People that were once buried with them. He tediously tagged them with their identity and preserved them in formaldehyde. He later died with no living heir, which is probably the very reason in his lack of respect for life in why he never could have children, because of his mind. His wives left him, because of his obsession and documented odd ways, loosing his mind in the end. It is time for the US to give back the bones of these Nations and honor them for the life they once lived and they all deserve to be put to rest. There is enough technology to assist doctors and scientists for the work they feel they are compelled to do. A Healing can begin! Paula H
Even if the Federal Government decides to extend ownership of ancient remains and relics to locally visible American Indian groups for disposal as they see fit, authorities will have to take American Indian spokespersons' word on who they are, how old they are, where they came from and how long they have been where they are -- in other words, the very questions science seeks to answer by study of those remains and relics. It's like giving students the chance to set course policies and grade themselves. I say this as a university professor and American Indian. American Indian cultural continuity and collective identification is quite recent. The oldest Indian writing, the Walam Olum, says the last-but-one phase of Lenape history comprised thirty-six reigns of their chiefs from their settlement along the Ohio to a figure known as Lekhihiten the Author down to about 800 C.E. Before about the year 1 C.E., all these nations were still in Asia around the area of Lake Bakhal. The Cherokee, Iroquois and Lenape lived together in the former territory of the Moundbuilder Indians (likely a mixture of Mexican Indians and peoples from the Old World) for an estimated 500 years. Another thirty-six generations passed until the Lenape arrived in their last dwelling place along the Delaware River, where they were encountered by the Dutch and English. A special black wampum belt was made to commemorate this event. When the beads were counted in historical times, the belt showed that the Lenape arrived in their easternmost homeland in 1396. So much for ancient roots on the land, and the Algonquian Indians are regarded as the grandfathers by other Indian nations. There are more Indian nations of Algonquian speech today in North America than any other. Yet they, like all others, appear to be relative newcomers, historically, genetically and culturally. Scholars such as Isabel Stewart have suggested that the Athabaskan Navajo and Apache Indians, today's largest and most favored tribes in the eyes of the Federal Government, did not arrive in the American Southwest until shortly before the Spaniards. It's time to stop throwing political sops and go on with the the science of objective study of peoples, whether that involves historical accounts, genetics or whatever means. The truth is far more empowering than anything else.
People, consider it from the reverse perspective, to get a feel for your own emotional reaction:. . . Consider what it'd be like if your race were extraordinarily heavily outnumbered by natives, and they kept your family's bones for their concept of scientific dismantling, and you wanted your family's bones to be at-home in *your*-land/ground. . . What matters to you? Their alien religion, or your family's souls' comfort?. . . Would you consider their alien religion ( scientism is a religion, and no, from what I've seen, not many hold to science-principles when "scientific"-*belief* is available -- discarding one's own knowing for what-Universe-says is too opposed to self-importance of the civilized! ) to be so valid as to utterly override one's own family-of-families, blood of one's races?. . . Think about it!. . . Also, since the genetic and linguistic evidence is that they've been among the Americas for about 50 000 years, and no material evidence shows their settlement during the miles-thick ice-sheet flowing over the land ( probably wiping previous evidence away -- but also having the sea-level some 70 feet lower than it became afterwards, so their shore-settlements wouldn't be at current shore-level anyways! Maybe if we dig 50-100 feet below sea-level, we'll find the settlements that they had during the last ice-age, since most human settlement is at water-edge. . . ). . . . . . then one must ask if the genetic & linguistic evidence is faking itself, . . . or if we're allowing our prejudice ( scientism-religion ) to maintain that they've /not/ been here for that long ( in which case our relative establishment isn't so flickeringly transient, right? ) . . . and ignoring the change in conditions that make the needed evidence be where we aren't looking?. . . Whatever, it seems shamelessly two-faced for whites to demand the right to their own religion, while simultaneously demanding that others be exploited for the white religion, irregardless. . . . Asking to examine, without disturbing, the gravesites might get somewhere, even minute samples for chemical analysis, but the baldfaced arrogance & abuse western/white civilization shoves into all. . . Yowza. . . . . ( sorry about my attempt at paragraphing, using dots, but their system didn't allow paragraph-breaks or
markup )As a scientist/anthropologist I can not disagree more with the transfer of control of all "Native American" skeletal materials. Why? 1. Because NAGPRA sufficiently, and properly, handles the question of cultural provenance. Without a clear cultural connection no one can know from whom skeletal materials (e.g. Kenniwick) are derived. The only way to discern the relationship of such materials is through biometric analyses and mtDNA/Y-chromosome and other biological tags. 2. With all due respect to the Native American mythos there is no definitive, or empirical, data connecting skeletal materials older than roughly 7000 years to living Native American populations. Non-Native American cultures have multiple creation myths (belief systems) that are not subject to verification through any scientific methodology in effect. Similarly Native American creation stories are not subject to scientific verification, therefore, they may, through faith, claim an ancestry but can not demonstrate, through science, its veracity. Look at the developing histories of the Old World that are coming to the fore as a result of careful scientific analyses. It is not always a pretty picture, but it does give peoples of Old World ancestry a plethora of tools for understanding who and what they are. 3. One of the great mysteries of New World science and anthropology is that nearly blank stretch from initial contact by humans with the New World through to a time where clear cultural connections can be made with Native American cultures. Who were these people? We really do not know, but several models have been constructed in an attempt to answer this question. When did they first arrive? How many times did they penetrate the New World? And from how many differing geographic locations and biological populations? We do not know. In fact if we do not have appropriate access to paleo-materials we may never know our roots. We may never know our history. We may never answer basic questions that beg for resolution. Each skeleton is a universe of answers and questions about those initial entrants. They provide grist for the mill of science that will convert mystery into more palpable realities. I do not prefer inadequacy, or ignorance, in my universe. Science is the tool of revelation that will eventually replace mystery with history; a story of the early peoples that began a new life in a new world. A mythos made real? Mayhap!
The subtitle of this article garbles reality: "Anthropologists lobby to retain Native Indian skeletons for study." Not quite. Anthropologists are lobbying to retain ancient human remains that must not be simply assumed to be Native American. This is especially true for those ancient remains with no evidence (biological or cultural) of a link to a modern tribe. A variety of early people arrived in the empty continents of North and South America over thousands of years. To define them all as culturally related only to modern American Indians does not serve anyone. Destroying factual evidence that leads to understanding the past and replacing it with beliefs as the only legitimate explanation of the past is absurd. Public policy must not bend to identity politics to impose modern day American Indian beliefs upon those peoples whose histories are yet to be discovered.
The Tribes are putting significant financial resources into burying the truth about the oldest occupants of North America. Should these American Indian groups be successful, we will all lose the answer to a fascinating mystery. The rights of the few will have superseded the rights of the majority, and the true history of this continent will be lost. The remains of ancient Americans tell us that contemporary American Indians were not the first people here. To learn who the ancient ones were, however, will take study. If the very old skeletal material is buried without study, the real identity of the first people will remain obscured. This will be a tragic loss of history, for all of humanity. Over the millennia, many different populations came to North (and South) America. Of those early travelers who have been studied, none are physically related to either contemporary Tribal groups or to other American populations. It is, without study, impossible to relate the ancient people to any modern American people. Further, until very recently, the oral histories of many American Indian groups included tales of extremely brave individuals, who traveled to this land from far away. Arduous journeys were part of the proud heritage of the various Tribes. These foundation stories were part of many Indian populations' prehistoric record. Sadly, in the last few decades, those oral histories and the primary source accounts have been ignored. Political intent has skewed the record, so that the brave and original tales of how Indian people came to be here have been lost. Those accounts, from which we could all learn, have been replaced by such inaccuracies as the recently adopted phrase, "we were always here". Why should the history of North America be kept from all of us, when it is relevant to the entire continent’s population? The truth should not be silenced, due to the political agenda of a small part of this Nation. Fundamentalism and science are not always incompatible. With regard to ancient human remains, coexistence could and should exist. The ancient remains that have been studied thus far are not Indian. By burying all other ancient remains, any chance of proving that the Indians were one of the initial populations will be eliminated. The record now testifies that most American Indian groups are relatively recent migrants to this country. Only through studies of skeletal attributes, DNA, and other physical evidence can any possible relationship between modern American Indians and the ancient occupants of North America be identified. One additional issue, which should be upsetting to those having fundamental religious beliefs, is that of actual respect for the deceased. With regard to more recent human remains, the claims of many Tribal groups are in serious conflict with their stated ethics. If the intent in claiming human remains is to bring peace to the deceased, then a strong cultural association is an absolute necessity. Without a firm association between the claimant and the deceased, it is highly probable that an individual who was killed by a neighboring group will actually be reinterred by that group, and subsequently claimed by that population as one of its own. If there is a nightmare scenario in the afterlife, this must be it!
Despite the "hysterical religion vs. rational science" polarity of some comments, this issue is one of negotiation. It is alarmist and irrational to assume that if Native Americans regain control of skeletal remains, they will regain control of all remains, then instantly and forever bury them in the ground, allowing no further testing. Insensitive statements about the untestability of Native mythos are not helpful. Above all, a respectful tenor is required in these negotiations. Both parties must be willing to move a bit, despite their deeply held convictions. It is not reasonable for the scientific community to assume that all human remains shall remain its property or be in its possession indefinitely. What we need here is a healthy dose of kindness and respect on both sides, and an understanding that this negotiation between scientists and Native Americans is going to be a long-term process where no resolution need be inflexible or absolute.