Singing Loudly

Amber brought up an interesting hypothetical that reminded me of NAGPRA. One of the most interesting cases that has arisen from that legislation was the discovery of the Kennewick Man. Panda's Thumb has anupdate.

Last fall I was fascinated to learn about the Kennewick Man in my art and antiquities law class. Basically a 10,000 year old skeleton was discovered in Washington State. What really made this find unique was how well the skeleton was preserved.

What is interesting is that this was found in the area of Native Reservations. Of course scientists wanted to be able to study the skeleton. The Native Americans wished to control disposition and repatriate the remains.

The facts of the case involved strange behavior on the part of the defendants wishing to repatriate. The skull of the skeleton did not seem to match the American Indians. He has a spear point that could be a marker for identity. However, scientists don't know whether he was buried or not. The Army Corp. (defendants) dumped rocks over the find spot to ruin any contrary evidence.

Under the Native American Grave Protection and Repatriation Act, the rights of Native Americas are safeguarded by protecting tribal burial sites and rights to items of cultural significance to Native Americans. This includes human remains.

What constitutes ownership? What I found interesting is that the definition of Native American is in the present tense ("Of or relating to, a tribe, people, or culture that is indigenous to the U.S."). With Kennewick Man it seems that there needs to be some relationship to a presently existing tribe, people or culture.

The Plaintiff in the case needs to be able to study the remains a little closer to figure out if this is the case. However, the Army Corps of Engineers have done all they can to impede any gathering of evidence. First they dropped 500 tons of rock on the discovery site, destroying any possibility of further excavation. Panda's Thumb links to a story that reports the Corps is "resisting allowing the scientists to remove some of the skeletal material to conduct tests."

Obviously this (specifically and NAGPRA generally) is a problem if we want this type scientific research to be furthered. I do understand the American Indians point of view on this, but I don't think they should have control until they can prove ownership. It's unfortunate that the Corps is doing all it can to prevent any evidence that opposes ownership.