My Funny Picture

help with a summary?

Last Rites for Indian Dead by Suzan Shown Harjo What if museums, universities, and government agencies could put your dead relatives on display or keep them in boxes to be cut up and otherwise studied? What if you believed that the spirits of the dead could not rest until their human remains were placed in a sacred area? The ordinary American would say there ought to be a law—and there is, for ordinary Americans. The problem for American Indians is that there are too many laws of the kind that make us the archeological property of the United States and too few of the kind that protect us from such insults. Some of my own Cheyenne relatives’ skulls are in the Smithsonian Institution today, along with those of at least 4,500 other Indian people who were violated in the 1800s by the U.S. Army for an “Indian Crania Study.” It wasn’t enough that these unarmed Cheyenne people were mowed down by the cavalry at the infamous Sand Creek massacre; many were decapitated and their heads shipped to Washington as freight. (The Army Medical Museum’s collection is now in the Smithsonian.) Some had been exhumed° only hours after being buried. Imagine their grieving families’ reaction on finding their loved ones disinterred° and headless. Some targets of the Army’s study were killed in noncombat situations and beheaded immediately. The officer’s account of the decapitation of the Apache chief Mangas Coloradas in 1863 shows the pseudoscientific nature of the exercise. “I weighed the brain and measured the skull,” the good doctor wrote, “and found that while the skull was smaller, the brain was larger than that of Daniel Webster.” These journal accounts exist in excruciating detail, yet missing are any records of overall comparisons, conclusions, or final reports of the Army study. Since it is unlike the Army not to leave a paper trail, one must wonder about the motive for its collection. The total Indian body count in the Smithsonian collection is more than 19,000, and it is not the largest in the country. It is not inconceivable that the 1.5 million of us living today are outnumbered by our dead stored in museums, educational institutions, federal agencies, state historical societies, and private collections. The Indian people are further dehumanized by being exhibited alongside the mastodons and dinosaurs and other extinct creatures. Where we have buried our dead in peace, more often than not the sites have been desecrated. For more than two hundred years, relic-hunting has been a popular pursuit. Lately, the market in Indian artifacts has brought this abhorrent activity to a fever pitch in some areas. And when scavengers come upon Indian burial sites, everything found becomes fair game, including sacred burial offerings, teeth, and skeletal remains.One unusually well-publicized example of Indian grave desecration occurred two years ago in a western Kentucky field known as Slack Farm, the site of an Indian village five centuries ago. Ten men—one with a business card stating “Have Shovel, Will Travel”—paid the landowner $10,000 to lease digging rights between planting seasons. They dug extensively on the forty-acre farm, rummaging through an estimated 650 graves, collecting burial goods, tools, and ceremonial items. Skeletons were strewn about like litter. What motivates people to do something like this? Financial gain is the first answer. Indian relic-collecting has become a multimillion-dollar industry. The price tag on a bead necklace can easily top $1,000; rare pieces fetch tens of thousands. And it is not just collectors of the macabre° who pay for skeletal remains. Scientists say that these deceased Indians are needed for research that someday could benefit the health and welfare of living Indians. But just how many dead Indians must they examine? Nineteen thousand? There is doubt as to whether permanent curation of our dead really benefits Indians. Dr. Emery A. Johnson, former assistant Surgeon General, recently observed, “I am not aware of any current medical diagnostic or treatment procedure that has been derived from research on such skeletal remains. Nor am I aware of any during the thirty-four years that I have been involved in American Indian . . . health care.” Indian remains are still being collected for racial biological studies. While the intentions may be honorable, the ethics of using human remains this way without the full consent of relatives must be questioned. Some relief for Indian people has come on the state level. Almost half of the states, including California, have passed laws protecting Indian burial sites and restricting the sale of Indian bones, burial offerings, and other sacred items. Rep. Charles E. Bennett (D-Fla.) and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) have introduced bills that are a good start in invoking the federal government’s protection. However, no legislation has attacked the problem headon by imposing stiff penalties at the marketplace, or by changing laws that make dead Indians the nation’s property. Some universities—notably Stanford, Nebraska, Minnesota, and Seattle—have returned, or agreed to return, Indian human remains; it is fitting that institutions of higher education should lead the way.Congress is now deciding what to do with the government’s extensive collection of Indian human remains and associated funerary objects. The secretary of the Smithsonian, Robert McC. Adams, has been valiantly° attempting to apply modern ethics to yesterday’s excesses. This week, he announced that the Smithsonian would conduct an inventory and return all Indian skeletal remains that could be identified with specific tribes or living kin. But there remains a reluctance generally among collectors of Indian remains to take action of a scope that would have a quantitative impact and a healing quality. If they will not act on their own—and it is highly unlikely that they will—then Congress must act. The country must recognize that the bodies of dead American Indian people are not artifacts to be bought and sold as collector’s items. It is not appropriate to store tens of thousands of our ancestors for possible future research. They are our family. They deserve to be returned to their sacred burial grounds and given a chance to rest. The plunder of our people’s graves has gone on too long. Let us rebury our dead and remove this shameful past from America’s future. 0 comments: Post a Comment Newer Post Older Post Home Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom) __________________________________________ Recently Dugg Stories The Covers Project The Covers Project began as a simple idea to help listeners discover new music by showcasing covers of famous songs. Users can search for their favorite artists and listen to different renditions of their songs online. Artists are welcome to submit their covers. Powerful people often unable to see other people's perspectives To study the link between power and perspective taking, the participants were told to draw the letter E on their forehead. Those who had previously been randomly assigned to a high power group were almost three times more likely to draw a self-oriented E than those who were assigned to the low power condition. John Cage's 4′33″ (of SILENCE) Live! Hear this wonderful rendition of John Cage's 1952 composition. Yes, do not alter you sound, it is meant to be 4 minutes 33 seconds of silence. There are 3 movements complete with authentic page turns by the orchestra. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4%2733%22 Scary and amazing pics Some scary and amazing pics. storm front, scared animals, Ice storm and more The Unfilmables: A List of the Hardest Novels to Film 13 novels that are impossible to film, and which director we think should try anyway... Archive ▼ 2007 (4) ▼ January (4) The Flat Earth Society stoneth's photos Modern Drunkard Magazine Online 1. If you owe som... ► 2006 (42) ► December (3) Top 15 Strangest Coincidences 22 ways To Overclock Your Brain ► November (4) Oases in Navajo desert contained 'a witch's brew' LiveScience.com - Why Music Gives Us the Chills TIME Puzzles: Brain Calisthenics Damn Interesting ► June (2) Photos & Visual Art by Christopher Gilbert malcolm x - documents > eulogy of malcolm x ► May (4) ROBERT GORDON WASSON Seeking the Magic Mushroom The 50 greatest conservative rock songs MEMETICS; THE NASCENT SCIENCE OF IDEAS AND THEIR T... Why 2012? ► April (9) HOW WE EAT OUR YOUNG BY MIKE PATTON BBC NEWS | UK | Magazine | The Devil's Music Man pleads guilty to obstructing police officer Staring into the Singularity 1.2.5 BOMB Magazine: Regina José Galindo by Francisco Go... Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An Am... Martin Luther King Jr. 01/15/29 -04/04/1968 The strange case of the man who took 40,000 ecstas... Last Rites for Indian Dead by Suzan Shown Harjo ► March (10) The Chinese zombie ships of West Africa Bush blames Iraq's instability on Hussein - Mar 29... GovTrack: H.R. 4437: Border Protection, Antiterror... Words from a founding member of Delta Force - Coun... Immigration bills send protesters to city streets ... Missouri teen survives ride in tornado Bush Pre-senile Dementia Video Happy 150th birthday: a new era looms for old age ... Hunter S. Thompson, George W. Bush and the Free Re... Guardian Unlimited Books | News | Harper Lee tops ... ► February (4) Ten things that may change the way we live accord... Court Allows Church's Hallucinogenic Tea Ubersite - The Ultimate MS Paint: It Will Make You... NPR : Restoring Kesey's Famed 'Acid Test' School B... ► January (6) Ten reasons why you should never accept a diamond ... Wired News: LSD: The Geek's Wonder Drug? American Rhetoric: Top 100 Speeches by Rank DOWN FOR THE COUNT - Los Angeles CityBeat Polyphasic Sleep The Epoch Times | Henan Man Impossible to Photogra... ► 2005 (98) ► December (8) Ten Failed Tech Trends for 2005 Shut Him Up, Shut Him up! MJ PEAK PERFORMANCE: Snooze, You Win - Improve you... Top News Article | Reuters.com ► November (19) ► October (7) ► September (35) ► August (29) my del.icio.us The Unfilmables: A List of the Hardest Novels to Film » Screenhead A Confederacy of Dunces - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia wikileaks.org Language Tools The Comatorium Community (Powered by Invision Power Board) Yahoo! ABC.com Full Episode Player ObscuredTV.com - Free Documentary TV YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. Zapata, Emilano - Tierra y Libertad GorillaMask.net: Killing Productivity, Monday-Friday Explocity.com Modern Drunkard Magazine Online 10126ee2475703c2b690ef5f369ba352.gif (GIF Image, 865x534 pixels) ZUG - The World's Only Comedy Site - Pranks, Jokes, Funny Video Clips, and Other Funny Stuff I am yomacle on del.icio.us Add me to your network

Public Comments

1. No. Do your own homework.
2. It is an interesting story and you should be proud that your relatives and kin are considered of value to be in the Smithsonian Museum. They are a part of History, and if their rest concerns you, there is a ritual you can use or create to set their souls at rest and let their bodies remain where they are. I believe they have reconciled already with their passing and the present must not erode a history. You are causing their pride and beings to be raised in agony at your actions and it is your soul that you must take care of, as theirs is already at peace because of the past. Start to realise their contribution is a gift from them, and it is not yours to raise the dead from their sleep