Bones Of Native Americans example essay topic

In the heated battle of who can control the past critical information and an abundance of education is being lost from the study of ancestral remains. The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990 (NAGPRA) is plummeting our modern society into the past. Archeologists now not only have to deal with the difficult task of piecing together the remains of past generations, but to now take on the daunting task of upholding science in the courthouse. How can a society point a finger and determine whom in fact owns our past? If we look back far enough into time we see our origins as a common ancestry, and we are in fact descendants of a single race that migrated throughout the globe.

There are eleven tribes fighting for the burial rights of more than one thousand Native American skeletons found in the Fon to national forest in Arizona dating back to almost two thousand years. Four tribes from southern Arizona want the bones buried on there reservation, because they believe that they are descendants of the Anasazi (the bones that were found). Also the Hopi and the Zon i believe they have rights to Anasazi bones, because they state also they are culturally affiliated. These debated claims are dangerous to the future of anthropology. Native Americans making claims to ancestral remains almost two millennia old is like an American citizen laying claim to the bones of King Henry V or even Napoleon. There is no need for Native Americans to claim a piece of everyone's heritage and bury bones which will further our knowledge of the past, because in the end it will only lead to utter chaos.

The repercussions of NAGPRA are staggering. The loss of valuable information to help scientists as well as people understand who contributed to the colonization of North America in prehistoric times is one of the many problems. 9,300-year-old bones were found on a riverbank in Washington in 1996. At first these bones were thought to be from a white settler, but in all actuality the bones turned out to be the oldest ever found in North America. Many Native American tribes have already laid claim to "Kennewick Man", but paleo-anthropologists believe Kennewick man may have arrived by boat from Polynesia, or coming over the Bering Strait from Siberia as most of the Native Americans did.

If NAGPRA wins the legal battle a valuable amount of information may be lost forever. The effect on the science world of returning the bones of Native Americans is appalling. Buried bones do not tell tales, and therefore science will suffer drastically. NAGPRA has put a halt on archaeology and science. How are scientists to discover cures for cancer or AIDS? How are we to better our society without studying it?

Science is taking a giant leap backward with this act that was signed by President George Bush in 1990. This loss of scientific evidence is being felt every day. A 10,675-year-old female skeleton was returned to the ground in 1992 after only being studied for three days. The government is turning its back on a highly debatable and important issue.

The outcome is a insulting one to our modern society. Anthropology depends on the study of the past. Why should Native Americans explore a past that does not belong solely to them? Native American claims for ancient skeletal remains based on assertions of ethic relationship, geographical proximity, or historical connection are without foundation.