Hello,
Gerry Oetelaar and Anne Katzenberg at the University of Calgary
Department of Archaeology. (www.ucalgary.ca as a start). they excavated
a very small sample (3, only 1 with bones, an infant) of historic
Eurocanadian graves, I believe before development occurred. I don't
remember the details (any help from the list?) but I believe DNA
evidence was used to confirm descendants of the child.

[log in to unmask] wrote:

> HISTARCHers:
>
> Gaye Norton's query about historic graves reminded me of something I've
> been meaning to ask the list for some time. (Sorry Gaye, this doesn't
> answer your question!).
>
> First some background. I occassionally am able to listen to little bits and
> pieces of a radio talk show on National Public Radio (in the United States,
> for the benefit of our European and Australian members), called "Native
> American Calling." On a show about a month ago, the topic was the consent
> of a tribal government to a developer to build a golf course. In the course
> of getting the appropriate cultural resource compliance, Native American
> graves were discovered. The show, I believe, was discussing the probability
> that the tribal government was going to allow the graves to be moved in
> order to allow the development to continue.
>
> As can be imagined, most of the Native American callers were indignant. One
> caller in particular hit a sore point for me, as an archeologist. She said
> something to the effect of "They wouldn't put a golf course over Arlington
> Cemetery, would they?" As usual, "they" was not defined, but her
> implication was that the sanctity most Americans hold for the premier
> cemetery dedicated to honoring the nation's soldiers was somehow comparable
> to the sanctity most Native Americans hold for any Native American remains.
>
> Now, as an American of European descent, I continually have to remind
> myself that my perceptions of degree of significance (that is, Arlington
> cemetery has greater sanctity than a small town church cemetery) is not the
> same as for many Native American groups. We in the western part of the
> country are continually reminded by Native Americans that everything is
> sacred, and that there is no higher and lower degree of significance. (We
> Euroamericans have a hierachical society; most Native American groups do
> not, so hierachies may be harder for some of them to think about?). Its a
> hard difference in value systems for the folks trying to make decisions
> about what to save and what to mitigate or let go, and its very hard to get
> around.
>
> Now, for my question. How many of you know of examples of moving historic
> Euroamerican cemeteries to make way for development? The underlying
> implication by the caller was that Euroamericans would not do this to their
> own cemeteries, only to Native American graves. I know that is not true,
> but I don't have case studies. I am particularly interested in cases that
> are not potters fields, but are cemeteries containing headstones and
> Euroamerican people with living, known descendents.
>
> Thanks for any enlightenment!
>
>
> Cathy Spude
> [log in to unmask]
>
> National Park Service
> Santa Fe, New Mexico
>
> As usual, the opinions expressed here may not be those of my employer.