Kimberly,
All legalities aside (and it sounds murky as to whether it was
"legally" excavated or not) I personally would not want to see an
infant's skeleton form a native american context on exhibit in any
museum.
The most ethical approach that I would advise is to consult an
anthropologist as to the culture or tribal group based on the bowl, and
then make contact with that group to arrange a respectful return and
reburial of the remains.
As many on the list know in the USA that native american human remains
are an extremely sensitive and political issue - and I would think that
an infant's remains to be doubly so. So I would advise this to be
handled with great sensitivity and respect.
I do know that when any human remains are found in excavation that
there is often a legal requirement for the authorities to make a
determination as to whether the remains are recent or historical before
they can be removed. I remember this happening when our archaeological
field crew was excavating a 1620's skeleton in Virginia. The state
SHIPPOS also require a research design to be submitted for any
excavations of human remains from any sites over which they have
purview. The legal requirements may vary widely from locale to locale
and if the remains came form private, state, or federal lands.
Cheers!
Dave
David Harvey
Conservator
Los Angeles, California USA
-----Original Message-----
From: Kimberly Kenney, Curator <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Wed, 27 Apr 2005 07:25:30 -0700
Subject: Native American bowl and bones
Hello,
I just had a woman call me who has in her possession a
Native American bowl that appears to have an infant's
skeleton in a baggie inside it. Her mother excavated
it herself in the late 1940s or early 1950s. She
believes the two were together at the time her mother
found it.
The mother has since died, and the caller wanted some
advice on what to do with the bowl and bones.
She described it to me as an oval shaped, plain brown
clay bowl, which is broken. She believes her mother
found it in either southern Ohio or Georgia.
I asked if she was certain that it was a Native
American piece -- she said her mother was an active
collector and knew a great deal about the subject.
However, she did not leave any information about the
bowl.
The caller said she believed her mother had taken it
to a Native American museum in Macon, GA for
evaluation, but she did not donate it. Her brother
(the caller's uncle) was also a Native American
collector and started his own museum in Michigan.
The caller doesn't want the bowl and bones, but she
didn't want to just throw them away, which is why she
called us. Since our mission is to collect artifacts
from Stark County, Ohio and President McKinley, it
certainly doesn't fit into our Mission. I am also
unfamiliar with laws and regulations about the
posession of remains, since it has never been an issue
at our museum.
So I told her I would post to all of you, and get her
some information about who she can contact regarding
the bowl and bones.
Thank you!
Kim Kenney
Kimberly A. Kenney, Curator
Wm. McKinley Presidential Library & Museum
800 McKinley Monument Dr. NW
Canton OH 44708 * 330-455-7043
Visit the Ohio Memory Project at http://www.ohiomemory.org
* NEW EXHIBIT: "Made in Canton" will be on view through July 24, 2005
* CONFERENCE: Help us "Celebrate Canton!" at our special conference
April 29-30
See our website for more details: http://www.mckinleymuseum.org
"Let us ever remember that our interests are in concord, not conflict;
and that
our real eminence rests in the victories of peace, not those of war."
-- 25th
United States President William McKinley
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