NAGPRA doesn't cover the skeleton from the closet until and
unless it falls into the hands of a "Museum."  Here, at
least, unidentified skeletal remains are subject to
repatriation to the Intertribal Repatriation Committee under
state law and Board policy, if not via NAGPRA.

More seriously, many (most?) states have quite serious laws
about owning, selling, possessing, and/or disposing of human
remains.  I'd suggest you contact the state health
department or the local coroner to make sure you aren't
breaking the law what ever you do with it.

Regards  :)


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C. L. Dill, Museum Director
State Historical Society of North Dakota
612 East Boulevard
Bismarck  ND  58505-0830
P: (701)328-2666
F: (701)328-3710
E:  [log in to unmask]
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Above in response to:

Date:    Fri, 4 Oct 1996 00:20:47 GMT
From:    "Robert A. Baron" <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Skeleton in the Closet

Now that the topic has arisen, I must ask what do you do
with a skeleton
trouvee?  While cleaning my wife's uncle's apartment, a
physician for over
50 years from the late 1920s (the uncle, not my wife), we
discovered the
veritable Skeleton in the Closet -- well, parts of one
anyway (skeleton,
not closet).  Laboring under the assumption that these dry
bones are not
the remains of a delinquent patient, but rather the still
extant fragments
of some medical school model (a graduation present?), we
must figure out
how to dispose of our find.  In this case the head bone
ain't connected to
nuttin' and the leg bone ain't connected to nuttin' and
there ain't that
many bones at all.  May I assume that there is no clause in
NAGPRA that
governs unattributed bodily residue? Can these fragments be
donated to a
school? Might they make the perfect ghoulish decoration for
the local
haunted hacienda?  Is this a case for the board of health?
Or does one
toss them out with the dust to dust?

Waiting for a serious answer to a serious question,

this is Janosh, a/k/a


Robert A. Baron
[log in to unmask]

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