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Gender: Female
Status: Single
Age: 44
Sign: Sagittarius

City: Indian Country
State: South Dakota
Country: US
Signup Date: 4/19/2007

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Thursday, April 26, 2007

Indian remains found at Miami building site

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published April 23, 2007

MIAMI - Ancient human remains from an extinct American Indian tribe have been unearthed near a downtown condominium construction site, officials said.

Fragmented bones belonging to five or six members of the extinct Tequesta tribe or its ancestors were found in recent weeks at the Brickell Avenue site, said archaeologist Robert Carr, executive director of the Archaeological and Historical Conservancy.

"This is not nearly at the scale of what we've seen in other downtown areas, but it was definitely a cemetery," said Carr. "The question is the extent of it."

The age of the bones hasn't been determined, but the fragments were surrounded by pottery shards, animal bones and an arrowhead, most of which appear to be 2,000 to 3,500 years old, said Carr, whose firm is assessing the site.

The Tequesta tribe, which met explorer Juan Ponce de Leon in 1513 when he claimed the land for Spain, was composed of hunters and gatherers and lived in South Florida for 2,500 years before succumbing in the 18th century to Europeans and the diseases they brought with them.

The bones will be reburied on the site about 150 feet from the place of discovery, a 50-square-foot-wide natural depression, officials said.

State law requires a full archaeological assessment of any site where human remains are found, and the reburial of those remains at their original location or as close to it as possible. Construction at such sites may continue once that process is finished.

http://www.sptimes.com:80/2007/04/23/State/Indian_remains_found_.shtml

In peace & solidarity,
Tamra
www.NDNnews.com
www.protectsacredsites.org
"Providing news and information about Native American Issues & Causes"
"Helping to make a difference for our people in Indian Country, one day at a time. What will you do today to help make a difference?"

"Our sacred lands are all that remain keeping us connected to our place on Mother Earth, to our spirituality, our heritage and our lands; what's left of them. If they take it all away, what will remain except a vague memory of a past so forgotten?"

12:36 AM

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Thursday, April 26, 2007

Native American remains found near River Road

Native American Remains Found Near River Road

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- A burial site with the remains of at least 33 Native Americans has been unearthed at a residential construction site near the Ohio River's Towhead Island off River Road in Louisville.

A spokesman for the Army Corps of Engineers said the remains are about 3,000 years old.

The remains are to be reburied at an appropriate site to be determined by the Army Corps of engineers in consultation with representatives of three tribes.

A spokesman for the project being built at the site said that in addition to the human remains, a few primitive artifacts, including arrowheads were also found.

They're expected to be sent to the University of Kentucky or University of Louisville for analysis and storage.

http://www.wlky.com:80/news/13088736/detail.html

12:33 AM

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Thursday, April 19, 2007

Museums group investigated over Indian remains

Associated Press

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ST. JOSEPH, Mo. - The federal government is investigating a possible violations by St. Joseph Museums Inc. of a law protecting American Indian remains, an attorney told the group Wednesday.

Attorney John Burns said the U.S. Department of the Interior is investigating whether Museums Inc. violated the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act when it accepted a donation of artifacts in 2002.

The law requires museums that receive federal money to provide a procedure to return cultural items - mainly human remains and funerary items - to American Indian descendants.

The collection in question, commonly referred to as the Shippee collection, contains about 36,000 American Indian items collected by the late J. Mett Shippee during his 80-year archaeological career.

Shippee's relatives donated the collection to Museums Inc. in 2002.

The board and its director at the time, Alberto Meloni, were in the process of adopting a resolution to comply with the federal law in October 2002, when it was decided that the Shippee collection should be returned to the Shippee family.

That meant the collection was owned by a private entity, which is exempt from the federal law. The Shippee family then loaned Museums Inc. the artifacts on a 50-year basis.

But the federal investigator told Burns that the collection wasn't officially removed from the museum's control until November 2002, about a month after Museums Inc. received federal money.

Board member Bob Brown said the Shippee family and the board wanted to keep the collection together, and did not intentionally violate the law.

"I'm confident there was nothing intentional on the part of this board ... it was a technical oversight," Brown said during the meeting. "How does (the Department of the Interior) feel about that?"

"They're not too sympathetic," Burns replied.

Burns said he expects a letter from the Department of Interior in the coming weeks outlining a possible violation and fine. The fine depends on the museum's income, he said.

Burns advised that the best possible action is to reach an agreement with the Shippee family to return the artifacts to their possession, which would void the board's action in 2002. The board then decided to authorize Burns to reach an agreement with the Shippee family and return for the board's approval.

Burns also told the board that the NAGPRA investigation was the subject of a closed executive committee meeting last week. He said the Missouri Attorney General's Office contacted him about a possible violation of the Sunshine Law because of that meeting.

http://www.belleville.com:80/mld/belleville/news/state/17103225.htm

11:54 PM

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Thursday, April 19, 2007

Resources for sacred sites issues

NAGPRA

David Tarlar

1-202-354-2108 or e-mail at David_Tarler@nps.gov

FBI Arts Crime Team

Bonnie Gerdiner

1-202-324-6668 or e-mail at Bmagnoss@leo,gov

Resources

Consulting with Indian Tribes in the Section 106 Review Process

http://www.achp.gov/regs-tribes.html

Advisory Council on Historic Preservation
http://www.achp.gov

FBI Arts Crime Team

To report a crime, looting, remains on display or desecration of sacred sites

Federal Bureau of Investigation Art Theft Program

Background information and detailed reports on aspects of the work being done by the Department of the Interior in the Kennewick Man case.

Kennewick Man Documents

NDN News

www.NDNnews.com

NAGPRA Law, Regulations, and Guidance
http://www.cr.nps.gov/nagpra/MANDATES/INDEX.HTM

NAGPRA

http://www.cr.nps.gov/nagpra/

NAGPRA by State

www.arrowheads.com/burials.htm

National Park Service Tribal Preservation Programs
http://www2.cr.nps.gov/tribal/

National Register of Historic Places
http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/

National Trust for Historical preservation

http://www.nationaltrust.org/

NPS National Center for Preservation Technology and Training Clearinghouse for Preservation Internet Resources
http://www.ncptt.nps.gov/pir/

Preservation Organizations

http://www.arrowheads.com/shpolist.html#Other%20preservation%20organizations

State Historic Preservation Officers

http://www.arrowheads.com/shpolist.html#ga

9:40 PM

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Thursday, April 19, 2007

New rule may help Native American tribes reclaim artifacts

Kevin Livelli
Columbia News Service
Apr. 12, 2007 08:58 AM

It's been nearly a dozen years since museums and federal agencies had to notify American Indian tribes about artifacts in their collections that might have been stolen from or lost by the tribes. But a new federal regulation may make it easier for the tribes to identify such objects.

It was a hot and arid day in Pecos, N.M., when the elders and leaders of the Jemez Pueblo tribe welcomed an outsider into the fold: archaeologist William Whatley.

Wearing colorful headbands, the old men sat down on the ground with Whatley. Then they began drawing images in the dust--images of bones, masks and pottery that had gone missing or been looted from the tribe. The elders implored Whatley to use his scientific knowledge to find the objects and help return them to the tribe. Not an easy task.

That was nearly 20 years ago. Now, for other tribes searching for lost or stolen items, the process may get a lot easier.

In mid-March, the Department of the Interior's National NAGPRA program, which helps carry out the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, announced a regulation requiring museums, universities and federal agencies in possession of Native American art and artifacts to provide new lists of their inventories and to share them with all federally recognized tribes within six months.

The rule, which takes effect April 20, marks the first time in a dozen years that museums and federal agencies have had to share with tribes what's in their collections. This process may uncover many items missing for years, and it may make encourage tribes to start making repatriation claims to get their artifacts back.

Repatriation is a process frequently fraught with tension between museums and tribes. Curators and scholars have an interest in preserving items for their educational and research value. For the tribes, reclaiming their objects can have a spiritual and cultural significance. But for some, it can lead to big business. A reclaimed object can establish a tribe's right to land, which it might want to develop--sometimes into a casino.

"This promises to have a big impact for many tribes, especially those recently recognized by the federal government," said Dr. Rayna Green, a Cherokee and the curator and director of the American Indian program at the Smithsonian Institution. "And it's not just about cultural heritage. It's about money and land and property. This is America, after all."

Yet even if the new rule helps tribes find many sacred objects, it won't necessarily help them overcome the many obstacles inherent in the repatriation process.

"Tribes and museums approach decisions about sacred objects carefully," said Dr. Timothy McKeown, the senior program coordinator at the NAGPRA office and the man responsible for overseeing the entire repatriation process. "Repatriation is not just something you can do overnight."

To begin with, tribes can struggle with issues of confidentiality when filing a claim. Many tribes, especially the Pueblo groups in the Southwest, have strict customs and rules about sharing tribal information with outsiders. Yet the law requires a tribe to reasonably establish its historical connection to a particular object.

The Pueblo Indians of San Eldefanso made a claim in the mid-1990s but backed away when a dispute over the claim led to litigation in federal court. They didn't want to have to testify and reveal tribal secrets.

Even putting together the claim can be a challenge. In many instances, a tribe's spoken language--like that of the Jemez Pueblo--isn't written down and can't be easily transferred into the legalese necessary to file a claim. And hiring lawyers costs money, something many smaller tribes lack.

When claims are readied for filing, McKeown says tribes sometimes argue among themselves and with neighboring tribes over who has the right to proceed with that claim, who should act as spokesman and who will be responsible for the objects once they return.

One such case currently under review by McKeown's office involves funerary objects and human remains that were recently found in Chaco Canyon National Park in New Mexico. Representatives from Pueblo, Navajo and Hopi tribes have all made competing claims for the same objects.

The tribes' competing claims can stir feuds that go back hundreds of years. "It has to do with very old notions of clan and kinship and philosophical and religious ideas about death and the afterlife," Green said.

"The issue is important because what you and I call artifacts are in their worlds living tribal members with the same rights as people," Whatley said.

Once objects are successfully returned to tribes, one serious issue frequently remains. Many of the items belonging to tribes in the Iroquois Six Nations and the Hopi Nation are perishable--cornhusk masks or headdresses with feathers. When these items come into a museum's collection, they are often sprayed with arsenic or another pesticide for preservation.

But upon return, the masks and headdresses are often worn in ceremonies, endangering the lives of tribal members and leaving the museum potentially liable for any resulting injury or illness.

"That's something we in the museum world are trying to remedy," Green said. "We're looking now into alternative means of preservation, like flash freezing objects."

Though the path to repatriation may take many years, Whatley says the end result will be worth the trouble for tribes. Over nine years, he has helped return thousands of objects to the Pueblo Jemez from museums around the country.

Back in dusty Pecos, thousands of Indians gathered in 1999 to welcome home their "tribal members." Museum curators and staff were on hand too, watching from a respectful distance.

Whatley, however, was by then a special guest of the tribe and had special access. He said he felt something that day that transcended science, money, land and all his pre-existing notions about Native American culture.

The experience, he said, has stayed with him and opened his eyes to a new way of looking at life.

"There's a lot more to this on the spiritual side than many non-Indians realize," he said.

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9:35 PM

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Thursday, April 19, 2007

One Nation, One Land, One people

One Nation, One land, One people

We stand as one people for our sacred lands, side by side as one nation. Indigenous people unite in fighting for our rights and for what was once, our land. As we stand as one, it doesn't matter where we are on Turtle Island. We belong to hundreds of different nations, Cherokee, Lakota, Dakota, Nakota, Ponca, Dine, Hopi, Apache, Pueblo, Mohawk, Seminole, Shoshone, Pawnee, Nez Perce or Crow, we are all one nation, one land, one people. Is this dream that came to me, "Indigenous people, One Nation" from a time so far in the past, or a reality yet to come? Can we in fact be One Nation and stand side by side, fighting for what's right?

Our ancestors fought for these lands, thousands lost their lives defending it. Now they are once again subjected to the hands of the white man, only now it's digging them up to study them. This disrespect of grave robbing and putting our ancestors on display does not occur to any other people, but ours. The white man's courts fight us, when we cry regarding the continual desecration of our sacred sites and disrespect to our people. They stole our lands, broke our treaties and continue to take what is not theirs. They disrespect our sacred sites by flooding, building disgraceful bars, ski resorts, climbing on, or bulldozing for new buildings. Many of these people claim they are honoring us, if this is honor, I don't accept. Honor is standing up for the rights of your people, giving your life fighting to protect them, fighting for what you believe in and fighting for beliefs and spirituality. Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull, Red Cloud, Geronimo, Chief Joseph and the thousands of warriors that gave their lives for the people, they had honor.

Our sacred lands are all that remain keeping us connected to our place on Mother Earth, to our spirituality, our heritage and our lands; what's left of them. If they take it all away, what will remain except a vague memory of a past so forgotten? Our sacred sites represent who we are as a people, connect us to our ancestors and to the Creator. If these places vanish where we go to pray, to fast, to speak with our ancestors, to dance, where our ancestors are laid to rest, we as a people will be no more. For 514 years the white man has tried to exterminate us, assimilate us and now attempting to wipe out all we have left; our sacred sites and spirituality.

Will you stand by and let them take all that remains of our being? Will you let them continue to desecrate our sacred lands? Or, will you take a stand and say no more?!

Every Tribal Nation is being subjected to this dishonor, disrespect and potential annihilation of our sacred sites and heritage. We must stand in unity side-by-side, as one nation, one people, one land, all across Turtle Island. It has come time for the division among our people to end and for everyone to come together. It doesn't matter what nation you are from, how much blood quantum you have, or if you live on the rez or not. We have a chance to make a difference for our people in strength and unity as "Indigenous people, One Nation."

Please help this dream become a reality, take a stand, protect our sacred lands and sites, before everything as we know it, becomes just another lie in the chapters of history.

Written by;

In peace & solidarity,

Tamra Brennan

Mixed Blood Cherokee

Founder & Director of www.protectsacredsites.org & www.NDNnews.com
Email: Tamra@protetsacredsites.org

This article may be re-published if kept in its entirety, not modified or altered.