And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: Caddo Nation recovers the remains of 75 ancestors http://www.okit.com/caddo.htm By Liz Pollard - Oklahoma Indian Times Writer BINGER, OK -- Seventy-five Caddo ancestors whose remains date back to the period 900-1400 A.D. are returning home at last. The Caddo Nation is making preparations this month for the repatriation and reburial, accompanied by a special ceremony, sometime in February, according to Stacey Halfmoon, Cultural Preservation Director for the Caddo. During the construction of Hugo Lake in 1977, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers unearthed many remains of Indian burials. They were transported to a Corps storage facility in Tulsa and preserved there. The contents of the facility was inventoried and reported to the National Park Service, a requirement of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), and the inventory was published in the Federal Register. It was there that the Caddo Nation learned of their ancestors' fate. Ms. Halfmoon says the tribe encountered few snags in their efforts to reclaim the remains, as there were no competing claims for these 75 Caddo ancestors. They know of several hundred more, however, which are still to be recovered. Ms. Halfmoon states that the tribe set about the repatriation with great care and consideration for the feelings and opinions of traditionalists and elders in their group, as well as for the opinions of more progressive tribal members. According to Ms. Halfmoon, with the help of NAGPRA funding, the Caddo Nation is building a cemetery for such reburials in each of the four states in its original territory, Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Oklahoma. She says some tribal members argued that reburial was not necessary, as the appropriate rites had been held for them originally, but the provision of a final resting place near their homes has made sense to all. <<END EXCERPT &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit) Unenh onhwa' Awayaton http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/ &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
