Give Skeletons Back to Tribes, Report Urges

A panel of museum curators, anthropologists and Indians recommended Wednesday that museums with skeletal remains of Indians give them to tribes with legitimate claims to the remains.

The group also asked Congress to pass a law that will assure that the remains and ceremonial burial objects are “disposed of in accordance with the wishes of the affiliated cultural group.”

The recommendation came in a report from a panel that has been studying how to resolve a longtime dispute between museums and Indian tribes.

“No right-thinking person would desecrate a white man’s grave, but too many people do not think twice about desecrating an Indian grave in the name of science, profit or entertainment,” a coalition of Indian groups said in a briefing paper on the issue.

Sen. Daniel K. Inouye (D-Hawaii), chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Indian Affairs, praised the group for coming up with a process by which remains could be properly placed.

Last November, President Bush signed a bill that requires the Smithsonian Institution to return the remains it holds to the proper tribes.

“Unfortunately, the old policies of the rest of the federal government, as well as non-federal museums or similar institutions which receive federal funds, are not affected by this law,” said panel member Walter Echo-Hawk.

“These agencies and institutions continue to remain free to withhold untold thousands of native dead from proper reburial by their tribes and peoples of origin.”

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who oversaw the work of the panel, said the report and recommendations would make it possible to proceed with legislation, but an aide from his office said that legislation has not been written.

The panel said repatriation standards should be judicially enforceable and museums should begin inventories and identification of Indian and native human remains and materials and enter into discussions aimed at repatriation.