Clare Farrell 

The historic settlement of the area we call Chicago today began over two hundred years ago with the trading post of Jean Baptiste du Sable in 1779. Long before its recorded development, however, this area was home to many Native nations, including the Illiniwek, Miami, Sauk, Meskwaki, Potawatomie, Ottawa, Ojibwe, Mascouten and Ho Chunk, besides the peoples of early prerecorded time. Over this period of thousands of years, there is a history of life and death that has left innumerable unmarked grave sites. According to the spiritual ways of North American Native peoples in general, death is the passage from life in one world to life in the next--a journey that must not be interrupted. Burial rites took many forms depending on the individual Nation’s practices, but one code was universal: the ancestors must not be disturbed in their final resting place.

An interview with Potawatomie Elder, Billy Daniels (Forest County Band), head of the cultural program, Mnoknomagewen (Good Teaching), which works to preserve the traditional culture.

* * * * *

After the invasion of the Americas in 1492, disrespect for the Native American life way extended to the desecration and destruction of burial sites across the country. In Illinois, there was no legal protection for unmarked burials until 1989, therefore Indian burials were either removed or swept aside to make way for the burgeoning population. In keeping with the policy across the country, Native ancestral remains, along with their associated burial goods that were kept for study, were stored in institutions across and outside the USA. Native self-awareness and self-esteem in the 1970’s gave birth to the demand for repatriation: the return of ancestral remains, burial goods and cultural items to their respectful nations.

The history of the repatriation movement in North America spans only a short term in the last quarter of the 20th century. The desecration of Native American graves, on the other hand, began with the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock in 1620. The journal of their voyage records that the very first Pilgrim exploring party had dug up a grave and robbed it of its burial goods. Since that time, wanton disrespect for Native American dead and the sacred traditions that support reverence for the ancestors has continued unabated. (Dwight B. Heath, Mourt’s Relation: A Journal of the Pilgrims at Plymouth 27-28, 1986)

The initial protest to the continued excavation, display and storage of Native American ancestral remains rode on the wave of the civil rights movement. These activities were recognized as symbols of oppression and racism against the Native community. In 1974, a group called American Indians Against Desecration (AIAD) formed with the intent of influencing legislation to bring about the return and reburial of Native American remains. Then in 1986, several Northern Cheyenne leaders discovered that almost 18,500 ancestral remains were warehoused in the Smithsonian Institution. This catalyzed a national effort by Indian organizations to obtain proper repatriation laws. The first piece of legislation that dealt with the issue was the National Museum of the American Indian Act in 1989, directed specifically at repatriation efforts within the Smithsonian Institution. Then in 1990, Senator John McCain (R-AZ), Senator Daniel Inouye (D-HI), Representative Morris Udall (D-AZ), and Representative Charles Bennett (D-FL) all introduced bills that culminated in the creation of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA).

A long grisly history of abuse preceded this enlightened legislation. Up to two million Native American remains are currently held in museums, government agencies and private collections--nearly as many as the population of Native people alive today. (No accurate national census of these dead has yet been done. Various estimates are compiled in David J. Harris, Respect for the Living and Respect for the Dead: Return of Indian and Other Native American Burial Remains, 39 Wash. U. J. Urb. & Contemp. L. 195 n.3, supra note 4, 1991, including Haas (100,000-150,000, Moore (300,000-600,000 in US alone), National Congress of American Indians (more than 1.5 million) and Deloria (2 million)). These had been obtained by soldiers, government agents, pothunters, private citizens, museum collecting crews and scientists in the name of profit, entertainment, science or development. The systematic collection of body parts began before the Civil War, with Dr. Samuel Morton collecting large numbers of Indian crania in the 1840’s. He intended to scientifically prove, through skull measurements, that the American Indian was racially inferior, thereby establishing the "Vanishing Red man" theory. This study became the scientific justification used by the government to relocate tribes, take tribal land, and establish policies of genocide. (Robert E. Bieder, A Brief Historical Survey of the Expropriation of American Indian Remains, supra note 13, 1990, i.e. The Bieder Report)

 The taking of Indian body parts became official federal policy with the Surgeon General’s Order of 1868. The policy directed army personnel to procure Indian crania and other body parts for the Army Medical Museum. (Reproduced in full in the Bieder Report, supra note 13, at 36-37). Over several decades, more than 4000 heads were taken from battlefields, burial grounds, POW camps, hospitals, fresh graves and burial scaffolds across the country. Government head hunters even decapitated Natives who had never been buried--Pawnee warriors from a Kansas battlefield, Cheyenne and Arapaho victims of the Sand Creek Massacre, and Modoc leaders who had been hung. Collection crews from museums also competed for remains to furbish their new-founded institutions. (Entries in accession records for the Army Medical Museum, Anatomical Section: A.M.M., nos. 8-12 from W. H. Forwood, Assistant Surgeon, US Army, Ft. Riley, Kansas, January 20, 1867)

The glaring contradiction behind these practices is shown in the universal code that early American society and its governance was based on. In common law jurisprudence, which the US inherited from England, respect for the dead was considered a mark of humanity. A British Prime Minister, William E. Gladstone, once wrote:

This same value system arrived with the early settlers, with the understanding that the normal treatment of a body, once buried, is to let it lie. Over the ensuring centuries, US law has developed strict cemetery regulations that protect grave sites in perpetuity, and make it a crime to disturb a grave in any way. Yet none of these considerations were applied regarding Native American burials, reflecting the racist attitudes of the invading nations, for it was not until 1879 that a federal court ruled that an Indian was a "person" by federal standards. (United States ex rel. Standing Bear v. Crook, 25 F. Cas. 695 (C.C.D. Neb. 1879)(No. 14, 891). This, and the fact that Indians were not granted citizenship until 1924, made any successful legal protest an impossibility.  

Besides NAGPRA of 1990, which has limited ability to protect burials on federally-owned land, forty-three states have passed unmarked burial protection laws in recent years, including Illinois and all the midwestern states. Most, however, do not protect as fully as necessary. Removal of human remains is allowed for everything from highway expansion to golf course and recreation areas, but with the benefit of repatriation to the descendants.

 The extent of trauma to the Indian nations as a whole due to the centuries of grave site desecration is beyond estimation. Native Americans recognize a continuity between yesterday, today and tomorrow, with a resulting harmony that is central to the health of the entire land. To Native American nations, Native Hawaiians and Native Alaskans, it is the common belief that if the dead or their burial goods are disturbed, the spirit itself is disturbed and will wander--a tragedy that can bring ill effects on the living as well. To assist in the reparation of past abuses, and provide for respectful treatment today and in the future, NAGPRA has four provisions:

 The deadline for inventory completion of ancestral remains was November of 1995. Many institutions, and most notably, the federal agencies such at the National Forestry Service, the Bureau of Land Management and the Army Corps of Engineers, did not meet the deadline. While there are civil penalties, effective as of February 12, 1997, for museums and all federally-funded universities and institutions that have failed to comply, only public demand can force compliance of the federal agencies. However, repatriation of affiliated remains and burial goods--those that can be traced to an historic, federally-recognized nation-- has already begun, with regulations in place for return to descendants and/or their nations upon request and proven identity. Much work is left, however, in the proper return and reburial of unaffiliated ancestral remains. Two draft forms dealing with this complex issue of how, to whom and where to rebury the tens of thousands of unidentified remains, have already proven unacceptable to the combined Native nations.

The outcome of this struggle is a victory on many fundamental levels. It heralds the renewed voice of indigenous peoples that demands self-determination, control of one’s own cultural heritage, and recognition as a people in the greater family of humanity. It is a statement of the current global efforts toward decolonization that marks the activity of indigenous peoples around the world. It is the expression of an earth that strains toward her own survival as she call longingly for her people to return home to her ravaged lands.

Only when the descendants of this country’s colonizers no longer claim domination over Native American peoples--both living and dead--can balance be restored for the benefit of all.

An era of nearly seven decades of desecration in Illinois ended with the closing of the burial exhibit at Dickson Mounds Museum on April 3, 1992. Its legacy of abuse began in 1927 when chiropractor and land owner, Don F. Dickson, began the systematic uncovering of 248 Native American remains, which he left intact and exposed to view. This became a highly-publicized "tourist attraction" that brought, at its peak, 80,000 visitors a year. As Native Americans began to challenge the right of museums to display human remains for public viewing, and Dickson Mounds became a symbol of the widespread disregard for Native rights. After repeated demonstrations and negative press coverage beginning in 1990, the museum finally agreed to place cedar planks over the burial chamber as a form of reburial, found acceptable to some and incomplete to others. The ancestors’ remains were, however, successfully removed from public view. (Frequent demonstrations were held at Dickson Mounds beginning in January of 1990, though the protest regarding showing ancestral remains probably began with the repatriation movement in the ‘70’s and 80’s. I have therefore reworded the above sentence.)

The trail of abuse continued with a permit given in 1993 to excavate an ancient village and burial site at New Lenox, Illinois, approximately 30 miles southwest of Chicago, in order to build a golf course. This village was part of a more expansive complex spread across 230 acres, on land occupied for over 11,000 years, and it was later shown to be a unique site dating to the 1640’s, with features unlike any in the midwest. Without consultation with the Native Nations whose cultural patrimony and ancestors were involved, a direct breach of federal guidelines, the New Lenox Park District obtained permission to excavate five acres of the site for a parking lot, as well as the grave of three ancestors, later determined to be of the Miami nation. Though regulations governing the Illinois Human Skeletal Remains Protection Act of 1989 state that permits shall be denied when "in the case of economic development or construction, there are reasonable and feasible alternatives to removal of human remains," (Illinois Administrative Code, Title 17, Chapter VI, Sec. 4170.310 d), the grave was disturbed in order to build an entrance road, which ultimately was not used when the layout was altered. At that time, the Repatriation Committee of the American Indian Movement (AIM) of Illinois, headquartered in Chicago, worked to prevent further destruction of the village area and other possible burial sites. Joseph Standing Bear Schranz, Ojibwe, established the Honor Guard, a dedicated group of Natives and non-Natives who stood at the entrance to the site in honor of the ancestors’ spirits, to watch for looters during the continuing authorized excavation, and to educate passers-by in the traditions of Native Americans, in order to foster respect.

 The episode at the New Lenox site catalyzed the formation of the Native-based, non-profit organization, Midwest Save Our Ancestors Remains & Resources Indigenous Network Group (Midwest SOARRING) in 1994. With its headquarters immediately west of Chicago in Oak Park, its mission is to facilitate the repatriation of Native American ancestral remains and burial goods, to work for the preservation of the burial, cultural and sacred sites in Illinois and the Midwestern states, and to protect and conserve the natural environment. Midwest SOARRING seeks to be a facilitator and liaison for the Nations that had previously occupied this state, to provide for the reburial of all the ancestors still held in museums, government agencies and private collections.

 Through extensive communication with representatives of the Native Nations and statewide Native organizations, as well as ongoing contact with US government agencies, Midwest SOARRING has achieved a close working relationship with individuals and organizations alike, with the following early achievements:

On a Thursday in August of 1995, two houselots were bulldozed in preparation for construction. By Sunday of the same week, police had come to stop the project and cordon off the area due to reports of human bone upturned in the soil. When all the facts were in, the site was recognized as the old Dunning Cemetery, a pauper’s graveyard located on the northwest side of Chicago, and over one hundred remains had been dug up and dumped in a landfill before the work was stopped. The Attorney General’s office was notified, and both criminal and civil penalties were assessed within a year’s time.

This was a known, recorded cemetery, and the remains were not unseen by the workmen. A stringent penalty was needed to prevent repeated desecration, yet the fine of only $9000 is relatively small for a housing developer. While no dollar amount can reflect the magnitude of this crime, economic loss is a primary deterrent for repeated violations. It is very questionable whether others will see this as a valid warning or as a clear signal that the price is not too high to try it again. 

Indeed, a nearly identical occurrence took place in Beardstown, Illinois, approximately 50 miles northwest of Springfield. Up to 40 graves were bulldozed during ground preparation for an apartment complex in August of 1997, again in a section of an historic cemetery. A permit had been granted for the development, though records indicated that graves from the late 1800’s were probably present. After the damage was done, the project was allowed to continue without fines or recognition of the crime committed.

The destruction of a cemetery in the name of development is a vivid statement on the absence of a working moral code for the dead in modern America. As long as respect for the ancestors is absent from the national conscience, all burial sites are endangered.

A grassroots effort must often precede any governmental intervention in a given issue, therefore Midwest SOARRING works with individual agencies and people to effect repatriation and burial site protection. Since private landholders in Illinois may legally choose to have graves removed from their land, it is necessary to deal with each case individually in an attempt to either prevent excavation, or assure that the removal is completed with prayer so that the ancestors can continue their journey in peace.

In November of 1996, as a first-time cooperative effort among an archeologist, private landholder, and Native people, Midwest SOARRING gained permission to enter land slated for a new subdivision in Lake Barrington, where a cemetery with graves 1000-5000 years old had been found. Maria Pearson, a Yankton-Sioux elder who serves as advisor to the board, led the prayer for the 23 ancestors who were forced to leave their intended final resting place.

As another example, in the following May of 1997, members of the boards of Midwest SOARRING, the American Indian Council of Illinois (AICI), and the Quad-Cities Native American League, met with members of the Meskwaki Nation and representatives of the John Deere Corporation. A horse farm owned for many years by members of the John Deere family was to be developed into a professional golf course on the western side of Illinois. Many sacred sites were known to exist along the bluffs, and initial surface survey work showed nearly fifty sites ranging from simple campsites to burial mounds.

In an historic agreement among all parties concerned, no pathway, roadway or other unnatural disturbances were planned on the sacred sites, and the anonymity of the burial areas would be preserved. Since five of the mounds had suffered from looting many years in the past, they needed to be repaired. The Meskwaki Nation allowed members of the Honor Guard and Midwest SOARRING to restore the mounds to their original level, thereby mending a serious breach in the natural order.

The magnitude of this event can be summed up in the symbol of the circle: the Native ancestors buried their dead, non-Native individuals disturbed the burial sites, and both Native and non-Native people, working together, restored the mounds, thus completing the circle with unity.

On May 2, 1998, National Day of Prayer, Midwest SOARRING sponsored a Prayer Vigil at the Capitol Building in Springfield, Illinois. After years of futile attempts to negotiate with state officials, approximately 200 people marched from the Illinois State Museum to the west steps of the Capitol in order to hear representatives from many Native nations present their common concerns to the Creator. There are approximately 12,000 ancestral remains that had been taken from Illinois, but there is no land for reburial. While over 33,000 Native Americans live within the state boundaries, there are no reservations, land base or representation in the government.

The object of the vigil was to promote dialogue between the state of Illinois and the original Native nations to achieve two goals:

 The first goal is clearly within reach. It would provide a Native representative to contact upon discovery of a grave, not only the coroner and state archeologist, as currently legislated. This arrangement has worked well in other states, and will offer the opportunity for the proper handling of Native remains during construction in Illinois. The second goal should be equally available since the government owns lands throughout the state. Meetings for consultation will need to be scheduled, so that the traditional requirements of each nation will be met.

As urgent speeches as well as prayers in many languages were presented this day, the power born of united effort brought us many steps closer to our goals.

* * * * *

These isolated incidents are major victories, for the huge gap between Western and Native culture, as well as traditional and modern attitudes, cannot be easily or quickly bridged. The lack of awareness of the sacredness of Native burials pervades a society whose ancestors lie buried and often forgotten in other lands, and the disturbance of grave sites will occur again and again while the law permits. It will be the work of continued cooperation among individuals focused on respect that will bring us continually closer to harmony among all peoples.

©1998 Native Chicago. All rights revert back to contributors.

Native Chicago

Edited by Terry Straus and Grant P. Arndt

Section Two: Heritage and History 

Coming Home / P. 209

Clare Farrell

This page hosted by Get your own Free Home Page