i worked on a crm project in wilmington, delaware that
was an irish catholic, mostly pauper (19th century?)
cemetery--if i remember right, it was over 2000
graves, many multiply stacked.  it was discovered
during construction of a new surgical center for the
hospital.  the pauper cemetery was adjacent to another
still in-use cemetery and church--they were likely
associated at one point but had since become a parking
lot.  it would have been fall/winter 1997-1998 by maar
and associates out of wilmington.

i had thought the graves were moved to the current
cemetery, though i don't know for sure.

cheryl smith


--- [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.


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