And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: From: Keith and Michelle Pounds <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> It appears that the Indian remains discovered in the Louisiana Cultural Heritage Museum in Bogalusa, Louisiana will finally receive a long awaited repatriation. In October of 1998, a local advocacy group, Medicine Wheel Intertribal Society, asked the Bogalusa City Council to remove the display of human remains from the Louisiana Cultural Heritage Museum in accordance with the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, 1990(NAGPRA). One of the displays was labeled "Lower jawbone- prehistoric woman...died at age 45." The remains were stored in the evidence room of the city police station for some two weeks, then finally turned over to Bill Day, of the Tunica-Biloxi Tribe of Louisiana. The remains were to be held in safe keeping by the Tunica-Biloxi until a federally required inventory of the bones could be completed by the city, and filed with the National Park Service. During the investigation of acquisition information, it was determined that the bones could not be positively identified as Tunica-Biloxi. In fact, because of insufficient documentation on hand at the museum, no positive identification of the remains' acquisition, could be determined. According to Bill Day, this has been a problem among museums across the country. Keith "Redbull" Pounds, of Bogalusa, adds, "Of course they don't have documentation, they didn't care enough to leave them alone when they found them, and they're not going to keep good records of them while they're on display." Representatives of the Chitimacha Tribe of Louisiana, Quapaw, Caddo, and others are in talks with the Lousiana National Guard in dealing with remains of this sort that have been labeled as "culturally unidentifiable." The endeavor has been labeled the "Native American Historical Initiative." The National Guard has reportedly donated a plot of land at Camp Beauregard, Louisiana to be used to repatriate culturally unidentifiable remains. The federally recognized Tribes in Louisiana will work together to provide a site for the reburial of culturally unidentifiable remains, so they do not sit idle in a storage facility for what could be years. Plans to dedicate the site are tentatively scheduled for October or November. Last month, MWIS stepped up efforts to address the fact that the remains had still not been repatriated, and found that the City of Bogalusa had not yet completed the required inventory. Pounds, with consultation from Sam Ball(National Park Service), and Kim Waldon(Chitimacha Tribal Museum), completed a "rough draft" copy of the detailed inventory and furnished it to Bogalusa city officials. During consultation of the inventory, plans were subseqeuntly made for the remains to be turned over to the newly formed Native American Historical Initiative. As of this print, the inventory is still in the process of being completed by the city. "I've said all along that the remains should be in Indian hands, I'm glad to see that they will stay there," Pounds concluded. Respectfully submitted, Medicine Wheel Intertribal Society P.O. Box 1326 Bogalusa, La. 70427 (504)732-3484 Reprinted under the Fair Use http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html doctrine of international copyright law. &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit) Unenh onhwa' Awayaton http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/ UPDATES: CAMP JUSTICE http://shell.webbernet.net/~ishgooda/oglala/ &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
