[MSN] State archaeologist wants to return Indian remains to tribes

[Museum Security Network Mailinglist]

May. 07, 2006

State archaeologist wants to return Indian remains to tribes
Associated Press

COLUMBIA, S.C. - Federal red tape is blocking the return of the remains of
hundreds of American Indians to tribes for reburial.

State archaeologist Jon Leader is caretaker for about 300 Native American
remains that he wants returned to tribes for reburial.

Harold "Buster" Hatcher, chief of the Waccamaw tribe in Horry County, wants
remains of tribal members returned for reburial.

But here's the catch. Hatcher's tribe is not federally recognized. And
federal law restricts the return of remains only to those tribes that have
federal recognition.

So the remains are locked away in 2-by-2 cardboard boxes at University of
South Carolina's Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology.

"I believe some of the people they have in cardboard boxes might be my
great-great-great-great-grandfather or my
great-great-great-great-grandmother," Hatcher said. "They need to be
returned.

"It hurts. This is blood of blood. We want them respected. We want to put
the ancients back in the ground where they're supposed to be."

One way around the problem might be for tribes with federal standing - such
as the Catawba Indian Nation in York County - to ask for the remains then
pass them along to related groups, said Sherry Hutt, a lawyer who manages
the National Park Service's enforcement of the National Graves Protection
and Repatriation Act.

"Tribes with money who have gaming are starting to assist tribes who don't,"
she said.

But, even if tribes can find away through the federal bureaucratic bog,
there's still the problem of identifying remains.

Leader said some of the remains he has charge of are for people buried more
than 500 years ago, some even date back more than 2,000 years. "It becomes
fuzzy pretty quick," trying to determine who these people were and to which
tribes they are linked, Leader said.

Hatcher said about 60 of the remains were taken from the basin of the
Waccamaw River as it flows from Columbus County, N.C., through Horry and
Georgetown counties to the sea.

It's the path Hatcher's ancestors traveled, the place many were buried and
some were dug up, often decades ago before laws prevented the grave-robbing.

Hatcher said his tribe has set aside a burial place and, when the remains
return, members will burn sacred herbs to purify the grounds by spreading
smoke from the burning mixture with an eagle feather.

But even that comes with red tape. Federal law prohibits the possession of
eagle feathers except by members of federally recognized Indian tribes.


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Information from: The State, http://www.thestate.com 


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