Earlier this week, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal made by a group of University of California scientists who wished to test human remains unearthed near La Jolla in the 1970s. Having been rebuffed by the lower courts, this was the last resort for the plaintiffs, who were seeking to block UC San Diego from transferring the remains to the Kumeyaay Nation, something the university agreed to do before the researchers went to court.
The locations of tribal communities near the La Jolla remains.
This victory for repatriation law also represents a chance to challenge the claims of anti-repatriationists that such a transfer is always (to quote UC Davis professor Robert L. Bettinger) “a tremendous loss for science.” To the contrary, Kumeyaay spokesman Steven Banagas sounded somewhat more conciliatory. According to the New York Times, he “did not rule out that scientists could study the remains for DNA. ‘These things we need to discuss,’ he said. ‘We want to be the ones who tell our own story.’”
The Kumeyaay had, in fact, already allowed Arion Mayes, a San Diego State anthropologist who had worked on Kumeyaay skeletons, to conduct an examination
Even though there was not enough “associated” material culture to definitively determine a relationship between the dead and the La Posta band of the Kumeyaay,
the university argued in court that the tribe should rightfully be joined to the lawsuit, and that tribal immunity therefore nullified the scientists’ right to sue in the first place.
This demonstrates the complexity of Indian Law and NAGPRA, but it also exemplifies good faith on the part of the UC administration. The remains were uncovered in 1976 on university property, but in 2006, the school was prepared to do the right thing and return the 9, 000 year old skeletons to their descendants.
The moral of this story may be that “telling one’s own story” is as much in keeping with the spirit of NAGPRA as are the complicated procedures of establishing historical and cultural connections between present-day communities and the bodies of their ancestors.
Source:
Carl Zimmer, “Tribes’ Win in Fight for La Jolla Bones Clouds Hopes for DNA Studies,” New York Times, JAN. 29, 2016
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/02/science/tribes-win-in-fight-for-la-jolla-bones-clouds-hopes-for-dna studies.html?hpw&rref=science&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region®ion=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well
