I do not know if you have heard of “Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA)”. It is a law that was passed in 1990 to, as stated, protect Native American Graves and Artifacts. It was a long overdue law to address the insensitive, irreverent, and immoral rape and theft of bodies and artifacts of Native Americans throughout the country; at least on government land.
Why am I writing about it? Simple. I was watching a story about skulls found in London that dated back to the Roman days, when London was Londinium. It was quite interesting what they were able to learn about the life and times of ancient London, the Roman occupation, the Celts, etc.
For some reason, it got me thinking back to Kennewick Man. Remember that. That was the Paleoamerican skeleton that they found near Kennewick, Washington in 1996.
Ever since the skeleton has been found the scientific gains that could be garnered from examining the skeleton in depth have been hampered by the invocation of the NAGPRA act, even though the Native American tribes attempting to invoking the act cannot 1) prove any relation to the skeleton as required by the act, 2) that their tribe was even in the geographic area at the time this person lived, or 3) which tribe was this skeleton related to. And that is presupposing that the Kennewick Man is Native American – there seems to be some question regarding that from visual examination.
When attempting to examine the skeleton to establish answers to some of those questions all hell broke loose from the Native American tribes. Why? Because they stated that this was a violation of the act.
If it was the damned act needs to be revised. Pure and simple. There has to be a provision for science. I know that loopholes have caused a whole hell of a lot of abuses in the past and it is a travesty regarding what has been done to the culture and bodies of Native Americans. That does not mean that we cut off all future quests for knowledge because of the past. Personally, I would be fine with scientists examining the skeletons of my immediate ancestors for scientific reasons. Maybe I am being culturally insensitive, but I do not think I am.
How about having a Native American representative overseeing the scientific examination and testing? Ideas?
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