American Indian Culture and Research Journal

INTRODUCTION Gaining equal burial protection under the law is a great concern of American Indians. The loss of this fundamental human right and the theft of tens of thousands, if not millions, of native bodies comprise only one segment of a larger pattern of mistreatment that has occurred simultaneously with forced removals, coercive assimilation, and genocide. While depriving Indians of burial rights, white society has jealously guarded its own dead through the statutory process. Until the 1970s, when growing opposition among Indians and other concerned individuals began to curb grave desecrations through the enactment of laws, many non-Indians saw nothing wrong with the practice of taking bodies and burial offerings from Indian cemeteries for scholarly study and museum display. This attitude was deeply rooted in the American past, a residual from an era of racial arrogance and ruthless territorial expansion. Yet a life story-complete with birth, kinship ties, societal roles, individual aspirations, and death-is connected with each Indian remain, regardless of whether it has been disinterred or lies within the earth. This is one of the reasons why most Indians view deceased bodies as representing human life, not as scientific data to be exploited for profit and professional development.