WASHINGTON — Disturbed from their eternal rest and dug out of the ground, the bones of Indians who farmed corn, squash and pumpkins in what is now western Arkansas are one step closer to returning to the earth.
The Ozark-St. Francis National Forest, in consultation with several Indian tribes, has completed an inventory of 28 sets of human remains and artifacts, and determined that they are “culturally affiliated” with current-day tribes, the Caddo Nation of Oklahoma and the Osage Nation.
That means that under the Native American Grave Repatriation Act, a law signed by George H.W. Bush in 1990, the bones can be claimed by the tribes and returned to them.
In some cases, looters dug up centuries-old burial mounds and carted away the bones. In others, scientists from the Arkansas Archeological Survey - the state’s archaeological agency - found the grave sites while looking for clues about how Indians lived and died in the past.
“The Caddo have a long history of being dug up over the years by archaeologists and looters,” said Robert Cast, tribal historic preservation officer for the Caddo Nation, a tribe of about 5,000 people that has governmental offices near Binger, Okla.
Since the grave-repatriation law went into effect, more than 38,671 human remains and nearly 1 million associated funerary objects have been returned to tribes, according to the National Park Service.
Cast said that in the years immediately after passage of the law, museums and universities were slow to inventory and return the remains.
He noted a change, starting in 2006 when civil penalties for noncompliance were raised from $100 a day to $1,000 a day.
“Collections were sitting on the shelves collecting dust for40 years, and all the sudden you had multiple researchers wanting to look at them” before they had to be returned, he said.
Archaeologists working with the Ouachita and Ozark-St. Francis National Forests recorded the sexes and probable ages at death of the remains that were recently inventoried, as well as any trauma and disease that the people likely endured, according to Tracy Farley, a spokesman for the forest.
Farley said genetic analysis, “carbon dating” and chemical tests have not been used on the bones and objects.
The remains were assessed by the Ozark-St. Francis Forest staff and by representatives of 23 different tribes. Farley said the tribe designations were made easier by the fact that migration patterns in Arkansas are better understood than those in most areas of the country, and certain stone tools, vessels and burial patterns can be used to identify tribes.
Other remains are in the Ozark-St. Francis Forest’s possession, but Farley didn’t know how many. She said the national forest was “just beginning” a complete inventory of them.
Many of the remains were donated to the National Forests in 1988 by Thelma and Louis Gregoire of the Arkansas Archeological Survey.
The agency still has Indian remains, which will be inventoried, said Ann Early, Arkansas’ state archaeologist.
“We are completing our obligations,” she said.
Early said she didn’t know how many remains the survey still has to process.
“We don’t keep a tally,” she said.
It is possible that the collection will grow, Early said, as land developers discover bones and turn them in to the survey. But, she said, the survey will not dig up graves in the future, unless academics and members of Indian tribes both agree to do so and there is a specific reason for it.
Cast, the Caddo historic preservation expert, said he didn’t know when the recently inventoried remains will be returned to the tribe. He said the tribe is understaffed to handle all of the returning bones and artifacts. Great care must be taken, he said, to assemble human remains with the objects they were originally buried with and to return them to the ground near the original burial spots.
“For tribes it is a very tedious, long process,” Cast said. “There are collections all over the country, from the East Coat to the West Coast.”
One reburial is planned in Arkansas. During this fiscal year, the Caddo Nation and the Little Rock district of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will rebury remains that were found near Millwood Lake in southwest Arkansas.
There are also Caddo reburial sites in Texas and Louisiana. The planned Arkansas reburial, the first in the Corps’ Little Rock district, will be of remains found on Corps land during the creation of reservoirs in the area.
Rodney Parker, the Corps’ district archaeologist, wouldn’t say how many remains will be buried and declined to say when or where the ceremony will be performed.
The problem, Parker said, is that if people find out where the reburial is, looters could disturb the site and steal funerary objects like arrowheads and pottery.
“We’ve had issues with people pot-hunting,” he said.
Parker said the reburial is important for all Americans. “At the end of the day, it’s all of our cultural heritage.”
Cast said the reburials will be done in accordance with current Caddo tradition, which includes burning cedar wood and having tribal elders on hand.
He said it is unknown what burial ceremonies the Caddo did centuries ago.
“The Caddo were never meant to do reburials,” he said. “When they were buried, that was that. We just try to do what’s respectful and hope it is how they would have wanted it.”
Arkansas, Pages 15 on 11/25/2012