American Indian Culture and Research Journal

INTRODUCTION Most people understand that interment of human remains is permanent, “earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust.” But for Native Americans since their earliest contacts with Europeans, this understanding has been violated. The Pilgrims brought loot from a grave back to the Mayflower —according to the admissions in a journal first published in 1622—setting a precedent of European disrespect for Native American dead that continues to this day. The sanctity of the grave as a straightforward matter of human dignity might seem easily protected in these enlightened times. Indians no longer pose any threat to European-American expansion; the new country on the “new” continent has achieved its manifest destiny. Continued grave robbing may only add insult to numerous injuries, but our contemporary lack of cloture on this issue was demonstrated again on 16 November 1990, when the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) was signed into law.