Repatriation Of Native American Human Remains by Gary Spease

My interest in Native American issues began over 35 years ago resulting from the time I spent on the Rosebud and Pine Ridge reservations of the Lakotas. I follow traditional ways and religion. I am a 22 year veteran of the Missouri State Highway Patrol and have a Bachelor of Science degree in Criminal Justice and Psychology from Central Missouri State University. I am a spokesman for the Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma in Missouri and handle their law enforcement issues in the state as well as being a member of their Graves Protection and Repatriation Committee. I am also a board member and legal advisor to the newly created First Indian Alliance of Missouri. I wrote Missouri Senate Bill 429, the Trafficking in Native American Human Remains and Cultural Items Law, and currently work on legislation that affects Native Americans in the State of Missouri.

In November, 1990, after Native American leaders had worked for years on bringing the repatriation issue to national attention, the Federal government passed The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, known to Native Americans as Federal Law 101.601. Basically, 101.601 requires Federally funded schools and museums to return all their Native American human remains and cultural items to the tribes having claim to them. The law also makes it a felony offense to possess or transport Native American human remains and cultural items for profit.

To understand repatriation we must travel hack to pre-European North America. Pilgrim diaries tell us that one of their first endeavors, after coming to the New World, was to dig up native graves to loot the grave goods. These desecrations were contributing factors in the early Indian wars of eastern North America. In grade school we learned how the Indians taught the Pilgrims to grow crops and how to survive in this new land. What we did not learn was how, during the third year, the Pilgrims slaughtered and exterminated the tribe that had helped them.

History has also forgotten to tell us that shortly after the United States of America was formed, the government put a bounty on Indian scalps.

In 1838 the government herded Indians into concentration camps and then forced them to march westward to lands allotted for them. The most documented forced march known as the "Trail of Tears" resulted in the death of over 8,000 people. Ironically, most were mixed-bloods and many were whites who had long lived with the Indians. Bodies littered the trail as burial was not allowed. Little boys were dressed as girls so as not to be executed. Spiritual leaders were killed and religious items confiscated in an attempt to break the spirit of the people.

History has informed us of the circumstances of the famous battles during the Indian Wars of the middle to late 19th century, however, history has neglected to tell us that after these battles, Army surgeons under the direction of the Surgeon General, combed the battlefields to gather information on how much damage bullets could do to a body and how such wounds could be healed. The answers would lead to new cures and deadlier weapons. The government needed limbs and other body parts but mostly they wanted heads. Not only could doctors study fatal wounds to the head, they could practice the latest pseudo-science: Phrenology. Phrenologists believed they could determine a person's intelligence, capabilities, and character by studying the skull, and by studying Indian skulls gathered on the battlefield, they felt they could prove that Indians were inferior to their Caucasian conquerors.

The heads and other remains were transported by wagon to the Army Medical Museum in Washington, DC for examination and numbering, and were later stored at the Smithsonian Institute. Throughout the years other remains from scientists digging unmarked graves, treasure hunters, and "human butterfly collectors" began pouring into the Smithsonian and other museums and universities nationwide. The 16,000 Native American human remains once held by the . Smithsonian are only a small percentage of the thousands upon thousands of remains currently stored at Federally funded museums and universities. Today there are more remains being stored than Indians living.

Estimations of Native American deaths attributed to White encroachment since the time of Columbus have been as high as 60 million.

As late as 1979, federal law stated that remains and cultural items found on public land were the property of the Federal government, thus making Native American human remains archeological specimens.

Society today has placed monetary values on remains and cultural items. Native American skulls sell for as high $5,000. Pipes dug from graves have sold for $80,000. Burial urns sell for $80,000 to $200,000. The need for 101.601 has never been more important than right now.

To understand the seriousness of repatriation to Native Americans you must be able to understand our beliefs, customs and religion. It is our belief that in the beginning the Creator set a balance to the earth, a natural and spiritual harmony that takes the form of a circle. Within this circle's eternal loop, we are born from the earth. We live on nutrients the creator provided to the earth and when we pass on, we must return to the earth so our body's nutrients can feed the earth. When these remains are not in the earth, the circle is broken and an imbalance occurs in the Creator's harmony. The circle remains incomplete until all the remains of the ancestors are put back where they belong. Our spiritual leaders and Elders believe the problems facing Native American people today are a result of us not completing that circle of life for the ancestors.

November 16 of this year is the deadline for Federally funded schools and museums to return the remains and cultural items to the tribes. Most of the schools and museums in Missouri have been contacted and have shown a willingness to work with the tribes, however, the University of Missouri's Archeology Department has indicated a hesitancy in releasing their remains apparently feeling more studies should be done. From taped interviews with the archaeologists we have learned that their primary concern appears to be determining how many children a woman could give birth to ten thousand years ago. We feel this information, if obtainable, has no bearing on modem society.

The Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma, who holds aboriginal land title to most of northwestern Missouri, is currently spearheading an effort to unite all tribes having aboriginal land title in Missouri to form an united front to approach the schools and museums within the state so all remains will be returned without controversy. The Iowas have also purchased an office in Princeton, Missouri to be used for repatriation and have acquired land in a beautiful secluded area of eastern Mercer county for the purpose of reburying their ancestors. The land is also available to any tribe who wishes to rebury their ancestors in Missouri and will be the resting place for those of us who will be buried in the traditional way. Since there are no ceremonies for reburying, repatriation will be done privately with the respect and dignity due to the ancestors. Cultural items obtained with the remains will be secretly disposed of by the tribe so our children will never again have to face this issue.