Tribes’ Win in Fight for La Jolla Bones

[Olden]

"After losing in lower courts, the scientists in November asked the United States Supreme Court to get involved. This week, the court declined. That decision swept away the last obstacle to the transfer."
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/02/sc...er=rss&emc=rss

How Native Americans are taking back their ancestors’ remains
https://timeline.com/how-native-amer...143#.ynx0suk7c

[Havenhunter]

Interesting! For a number of years the anthropology dept. at William & Mary College in Williamsburg had dozens of Pamunkey tribe skeletons stored in cabinets. As the academic community became more aware of tribal beliefs and views re. ancestral remains, the bones were turned over to the tribe for proper burial.

[Olden]

Yeah, lots of attitude adjustments have been made about the collection of human remains.
When I was a boy our school used to pack us up on the bus for occasional field trips - one of them was to an exposed NA burial at the Mayone/Piscataway Village site. The single open grave was housed by a small stone structure with windows for viewing, and was located where a stockaded village once stood: over 600 flexed & bundled burials were found there. I'm not sure when the viewing house was removed (and justly so), but I believe it's part of what led me to a lifelong interest of the past and it's connections to the land.

just across the river from Mount Vernon..

http://www.bayjournal.com/article/piscataway_parks_role_evolved_from_saving_a_view_to_sharing_a_point_of_view

[gregszybala]

When you get right down to it, none of us want our Great Grandmother dug up and stored in a box in some basement.
Hopefully the tribes will continue to understand the value of study and give the archaeologists and scientist time to do those studies and the professionals understand the wish to re inter those bodies.