Choctaw Nation Reburying 124 Ancestors

[walksalone11]

By MURRAY EVANS
THE Associated Press

Published: Friday, March 18, 2011 at 10:52 p.m.
Last Modified: Friday, March 18, 2011 at 10:52 p.m.

( page 1 of 2 )

OKLAHOMA CITY | The Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma is leading an effort to rebury 124 bodies thought to be those of their ancestors in what it bills as one of the largest repatriations of its kind.

The natives died five centuries ago, unable to fend off illnesses and diseases they'd never experienced before, like flu, measles and chicken pox. Archeologists exhumed the bodies in excavations along the Natchez Trace Parkway in Mississippi in the 1950s and 1963 -- along with various artifacts -- but the remains ended up in what amounted to museum storage.

"I believe that our ancestors have handed down responsibilities to us as tribal people and one of those responsibilities is to take care of the dead," said Terry Cole, the director of the Durant-based tribe's historical preservation department.

"The belief is that when you started burying people in the ground, they go back to Mother Earth, they become part of Mother Earth. Once these remains were excavated and dug up, they felt like their journey to the other side was disrupted. I was taught by my elders for these ancestors to continue their journey, they need to be put back in the ground."

Excavation of Indian burial sites was not uncommon during the 20th century. Christina Smith, the cultural resources manager for the Natchez Trace Parkway, says the 124 bodies to be repatriated were found during construction of the 444-mile road the National Park Service operates in Mississippi, Alabama and Tennessee. The route follows a trail once used by Indians and later by settlers.

"The mindset at the time was to excavate for scientific reasons," Smith said, noting attitudes have changed in subsequent decades.

Indian leaders found such excavations demeaning.

"To dig up Indian remains and to display skeletal remains was nothing back in those days. It's very disturbing. It's a lack of respect. ... Any other ethnic group, they wouldn't do that," Cole said.

Eventually, Indian leaders found sympathetic ears in Congress, said Francis Pierce-McManamon, a research professor at Arizona State University and a former chief archaeologist of the National Park Service. That led to the passage of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, which then-President George H.W. Bush signed into law in 1990.

[amyrouse]

So are they going to stop at this 124 and say "wow, we did a good thing there" and forget about the others that should be reburied?

[DarkMistress]

That is pretty screwed up to think that all of those bodies were just put in a "museum storage" for all of these years. How many other countless places are like this too? To dig up bodies, steal things off them, and then to not rebury the bodies, that is screwed up big time. I am glad they get to bury them now, and I hope others do the same if there are more, which I am sure there are.

[walksalone11]

There are many thousands of remains and funerary items in museums as well as at many Universities.