In a message dated 6/7/2006 5:27:44 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time,  
[log in to unmask] writes:

could be  a recent murder victim, or some living person's
relative - what permit  system is in place for exhuming a corpse in the
US?  



Gary,
 
Were this in California, the discoverer has 24-hours to notify the County  
Coroner. Then they have to notify the Native American Heritage Commission, even  
if the skeletons are not thought to be Native American (because the coroner  
determines if this is relevant or not). Nothing further can be done until the  
Coroner has decided on the evidence at the grave. Some coroners hire  
archaeologists to carefully search the surrounding area for evidence (eg. up in  
Salinas, California). Other coroners work with local police for crime scene  
investigations. If it is clearly an old cemetery, a determination as to what  
undertaking threatens the site is investigated (eg. construction project). If  the 
coroner and permitting agency (eg. local or state building permit authority)  
determine the cemetery needs to be relocated prior to further construction 
work,  then the cemetery is sealed and a very strict public notification system 
kicks  into effect. After repeated newspaper notices seeking next of kin fails 
to  identify or draw someone to claim the bodies, then the coroner and local 
agency  work with the property owner to ensure a proper relocation of the 
remains. The  cost of such an endeavor is usually born by the land developer. 
 
Here are some relevant examples to consider:
 
Reburial of a Prehistoric Cremation from Santee  Greens (now the City of 
Santee, California). Since he is fresh in my  mind at the moment, I recall Stan 
Berryman worked out such a deal with a  developer at Santee Greens in San Diego 
County back in the late 1970s. In that  case, the developer paid for cremation 
excavation, relocation and the entire  funeral ceremony orchestrated by 
Kumeyaay Native American elders and singers  brought in as far away as the Lower 
Colorado River (about 100 miles east). But  then, this is California and the 
environmental laws ruled. The cost included  making the new burial box, 
transportation and expenses for the funeral  participants, feast food for the mourning 
ceremony and reburial, and a lot of  other expenses. As I recall, Stan and 
Judy Berryman did everything requested of  them in the highest professional way 
with no personal compensation to themselves  (beyond the initial investigation).
 
Reburial at the Royal Presidio de San Diego. Some may  inquire of the graves 
excavated by the late Paul H. Ezell at the Department of  Anthropology, San 
Diego State University, Royal Presidio de San Diego Field  School, between 1965 
and 1975? I personally assisted in exposing about ten  of those graves between 
1968 and 1971; many of which were clearly British or  American non-native or 
Spanish/Mexican with minimal native ethnic  associations. In 1975, I stood 
present when Ezell instructed an assistant to  place paper bags with the 
skeletons precisely at the same locations (if not  articulated) where they had been 
removed, when he backfilled the field school  site (now under the Presidio Park 
lawn). Ezell had arranged for a Roman Catholic  priest to de-sanctify the 
cemetery before he removed the graves, made  arrangements with the County Coroner 
to properly notice the  investigations and discoveries, received Native 
Kumeyaay and Mexican American  descendant families who visited their ancestors' 
graves, and followed  detailed procedures under the laws at that time. His 
detailed field notes are  curated at the Department of Anthropology, San Diego State 
University. I might  add that Ezell's crew exposed at least one 20th century 
burial; which involved  an articulated skeleton lying on a board and the skull 
(with silver  fillings) had a railroad spike sunk through the temple. The 
artifacts  associated with those graves were taken to San Diego State for academic 
research  and publication.
 
Chancellor's Surrender Policy. Some years later, Lynne  Christenson, under 
contract with the Chancellor of the College of Arts &  Letters, surrendered all 
the artifacts associated with those graves (or  even within ten feet of the 
graves) to the current Kumeyaay families, even  though most of the graves were 
Spanish/Mexican citizens of minimal or no Native  American Kumeyaay ethnicity 
and some were clearly British American (eg. Captain  Henry Delano Fitch and 
Captain Snook). Lynn Gamble, Department of Anthropology,  is now attempting to 
determine precisely what was surrendered  versus "repatriated" (surrendered is a 
term for giving away  non-funerary items) and it appears that everything 
recovered from the  1970s park lawn (toy rubber soldiers, novelty rings, and other 
20th century  artifacts) down through the post-burial deposition layers 
(1840s-1930), to the  burials and from the earlier soil (pre-1782) excavated by the 
grave-diggers down  to sterile was included in the surrender. This extreme 
policy went far  beyond California or federal (federal laws did not apply to the 
field school)  law regarding repatriation because most of those things had 
zero to do with the  funeral of the bodies in the graves. The Chancellor, of 
course, was where the  "buck stopped" with responsibility for the policy.
 
I understand I have strayed from the Rogers Island cemetery issue, but the  
opportunity to discuss archaeologist's personal policies regarding the future 
of  professionally investigated cemeteries and their contents seems relevant. 
How do  others feel about artifacts associated with the disturbed grave earth; 
or from  soil beyond the grave? What about artifacts deposited after the 
burial? Since I  have sketched out an actual incident at the Royal Presidio 
Cemetery, I am  eager to learn what other people think about the Chancellor's Policy? 
 
Ron May
Legacy 106, Inc.