And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
From: "CATHERINE DAVIDS" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Organization: The University of Michigan - Flint
Date: Thu, 24 Jun 1999 12:22:00 EDT
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Subject: Re: From garden to sacred land
Flint Journal (Flint, Michigan)
Thursday, June 24, 1999
The newspaper article is accompanied by a color photograph of
Lapeer County Sheriff Detective Nancy Stimson excavating bones
(estimated to be 1,000 to 2,000 years old) found in a Hadley Township
backyard.
by James L. Smith
Journal Staff Writer
By turning over a few shovelfuls of dirt to plant a bush, a
township woman dug back as far as 2,000 years into history.
The woman uncovered what American Indians and Michigan
State University experts say likely is a sacred burial ground,
apparently used by a tribe of people who may have lived in the area
1,000 to 2,000 years ago.
Theh bones of five adults and three children were found at the
site June 16. Officials believe many more people probably are buried
there - and that has led to discussions about what to do next.
The discussions are among Saginaw Chippewa Tribal officials
who want to protect ground they consider sacred, the owners of the
property who want to protect their privacy and scientists curious to
learn more about the long-ago culture.
The site is not the oldest in the state. Officials say others ate
back 10,000 years, but they still would like to know more about what
is at the site. "It's clear to ome there's more there," said Lapeer
County Sheriff's Detective Sgt. Nancy Stimson. "What we found is
the tip of what is there. It appears to be a major grave site."
But officials want to balance their curiosity with the wishes of the
American Indians. Disruption of burial sites is a major concern to
native people, said Jefferson Ballew, Native American Graves
Protection and Repatriation Act coordinator for the Saginaw
Chippewa Indian Tribe.
"To native people, it's the same as me going into your great-
grandmother's grave, taking her ring and cross and displaying her
skull," said Ballew a member of the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi
Indians near Dowagiac.
Native Americans want the government to protect Indian burial
sites in the same way other cemeteries are protected. Although
Michigan does not prohibit people from displaying or keeping Indian
remains, the tribe encourages people to return the bones to the tribe
for reburial. Ballew said the homeowners in the Hadley Township
case have been very cooperative in working with the tribe. They
have asked police not to release their names or where they live.
Ballew said the tribe usually prefers that unearthed remains be
returned to where they were found. But in instances where reamins
might face future disruption through development or change in
property owners, the tribe might prefer to exhume ther emains and
rebury them at a cemetery on an Indian reservation, Ballew said.
So far, no decision has been made about whether to do any more
excavation at the site. After the homeowners discovered the remains,
sheriff's detectives spent two days using trowels and brushes to
carefully excavate a small area around the find.
On Tuesday, Stimson took the bones to Michigan State
University, where a forensic anthropologist and an archaeologist
estimated they were of Woodland Indians from 1,000 to 2,000 years
ago. They based their estimates on a visual examination of the bones
and the police photographs of the burial site.
Professor Norman Sauer told Stimson she had brought him the
bones of at least eight people. Their ages at death have not been
determined, but they ranged from newborn to elderly. One femur,
that of an adult, indicated a man about 5'7" tall, said Todd W. Fenton,
the forensic anthropologist who examined the bones.
He said there was no sign of injury, so the people probably died
of natural causes. Placement of the bones in the grave indicated the
site was an ossuary, or secondary burial vault, Fenton said.
Experts explained to the detectives that ancient cultures would
often bury people, then later exhume the remains and place only the
skull and large extremity bones into a common burial pilt after a
passage of time.
In the Hadley case, pictures taken of the bones by Stimson
before they were removed show they were "bundled," Fenton said.
That evidence helped date the remains.
In the Woodland Era the period during which the people likely
lived, tribes often kept remains in a hut until they decomposed and
then on a particular day would gather and bury them in an organized
way. A combination of factors likely resulted in the survival of the
reamins long after many would have disintegrated, Fenton said.
"Depending on the environment, bones can hang around for
10,000 years without fossilizing," Fenton said. Good drainage is
perhaps the key factor.
Officials said they will cooperate with the homeowners and
Indian officials to deal respectfully with the remains.
"We have no desire to keep them in a box," Fenton said.
Reprinted under the fair use http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html
doctrine of international copyright law.
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Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit)
Unenh onhwa' Awayaton
http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/
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