Legislative Alert - Kennewick Man - 4/4/2005

ATADA Legislative Alert #2, Kennewick Man
4 April, 2005

Dear ATADA Member,

You are receiving this e-mail because of your membership in ATADA. The ATADA Board of Directors has asked me to send the following message to the membership.

ALERT: Senate to expand the definition of Native American

S.536 full text is at http://www.atada.org/S-536.pdf, see p. 15.

As early as this week (April 4-8, 2005) the US Senate will vote on S.536. In Section 108 of this bill, the Senate Indian Affairs Committee quietly and unanimously voted to amend NAGPRA’s definition of Native American. No public hearings were held on this sweeping change.

This expansive definition of Native American sets the stage to overturn the Kennewick Man decisions rendered by the Federal District Court of Oregon and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

More than the Kennewick Man case is at stake. In any future similar discovery, human remains might be reburied without scientific examination. This would, in effect, block the application of the scientific method to inquiry about our Nation’s pre-history.

FAX or E-mail your concerns to your state’s Senators and Senate Majority Leader Frist. Ask them to delete Section 108 from S.536. (US Mail will not reach these offices in time). Every FAX or e-mail counts.

To obtain contact information for your state’s Senators, go to the following URL:

http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

Voice your concerns – NOW

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Suggested language: (Personalize your own message but use this subject alert)

Subject: S.536 – DELETE Section 108

Suggestedletter – provided by W. Roger Fry (WRF@rendigs.com)

Dear Senator ____________:

I am writing to you regarding Senate Bill S.536 titled ” Native American Omnibus Act of 2005″ , introduced by Senator John McCain on March 7, 2005.

Senator __________, this Bill contains a drastic change at Section 108. No hearings were held on this and it has been treated as non controversial. Section 108 is a seemingly insignificant change to NAGPRA, however this is not the case. It represents a major change and one that should be thoroughly studied, with public comment, before a decision is made regarding it.

Adding ” or was” after the word ” is” in the definition of ” Native American” in NAGPRA, results in the nonscientific assumption that all human remains found in the United States, that date prior to 1492, are human remains of ancestors of present day Native Americans. Under those circumstances the Native Americans would be able to prohibit scientific study of the human remains and cause same to be reburied without any study whatsoever. Had this change been in the law earlier, there would have been no study of Kennewick Man. Those remains would have been reburied at the direction of the American Indians without our learning that they are over 8,000 years old and non Indian.

The scientists who opposed the immediate reburying of Kennewick Man presented an extraordinarily compelling case, under the current law, and prevailed. Accordingly, Kennewick Man, which has been determined to be a non Indian, has been studied and will be studied further and may represent a new chapter in ” the peopling of America” . The change in Section 108, by adding the words ” or was” would have given the American Indians the exclusive decision making power to immediately rebury Kennewick Man. That same power would exist as to future discoveries if the change in Section 108 is made. This would impede appropriate scientific study of the prehistory of America.

Please ask that Section 108 be removed from Senate Bill S.536 until the ramifications of it are thoroughly understood. A public comment period would provide you with the benefit of the Native American position on this and that of the scientific community. It would enable all members of the Senate to cast an informed vote on this crucial issue.

Thank you, Senator ______________, for your consideration of this most important matter.

Sincerely yours,

______________________

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Please pass this e-mail along to any friends and/or customers that you think may be interested.

Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter.

Arch Thiessen, ATADA Webmaster

Legislative Alert - ARPA Modification - 11/9/2004

ATADA Legislative Alert 1, ARPA Modification,
9 November, 2004

Dear (ATADA Member),

You are receiving this e-mail because of your membership in ATADA.

We understand that the Senate will vote by voice (no roll call, no accountability) on an amendment to NAGPRA after it reconvenes Nov. 16. Thus time is of the essence and we ask your prompt attention to the following matter:

(This is a quote from The Friends of America’s Past web site http://www.friendsofpast.org/)

” Without mentioning NAGPRA by name, Colorado Senator Campbell introduced an amendment that significantly changes the intent and scope of NAGPRA. By referring to Public Law 101-601 rather than calling attention to the more familiar NAGPRA, the clear intent was to slip this amendment by unnoticed. No time was allowed for discussion of this amendment. Although the original framers of NAGPRA recognized that the scientific community and the general public have a significant interest in understanding our nation’s factual prehistory, these interests have been quietly set aside with two words: ‘or was’. A press report (www.Indianz.com 10/1/04) quoted a Senate staffer who said the amendment was ” non-controversial” .

” The statute’s definition of Native American was a central issue in the Kennewick Man case. In fact, the government argued before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals that if the bones of ” Adam and Eve” were found within our borders, they would be considered Native American under NAGPRA. As a result they would have been given to claiming tribes, reburied, and the public would have no legal right to object. This new amendment effectively allows any federally recognized tribes to claim any and all ancient remains even though they can produce, as the Ninth Circuit Court stated, ” no cognizable link” to the remains. This new definition puts all ancient remains such as Spirit Cave, Wizards Beach, Gordon Creek, Horn Shelter, and Arlington Springs under NAGPRA.

” If this new wording had been part of NAGPRA in 1996 when the Kennewick remains were discovered, the skeleton would have been deemed Native American, given to the claiming tribe (Umatilla), and reburied without study. Although NAGPRA requires that a tribe produce evidence of a relationship to an identifiable prior group, the Secretary of the Interior has the authority to set aside this requirement. Former Secretary Babbitt did so at least twenty times, allowing repatriation to claiming tribes without requiring any evidence beyond their beliefs. The government and tribes have argued that under NAGPRA, Native American remains cannot be studied for research purposes. NAGPRA does include such a statement.

” Expanding NAGPRA in this way imposes a simplistic view of the past: that the only inhabitants of the continent were the ancestors of modern American Indians. Time and time again, scientists have refuted this idea. Two words ‘or was’ denies factual understanding of the complexities that surely existed in the peopling of the Americas by giving American Indians exclusive control over our nation’s prehistory. In the Kennewick Man case, the government and tribes argued unsuccessfully all the information obtained during government studies is proprietary to the tribes should not be accessible to the public. With NAGPRA’s amended language, the public would be denied access to any information discovered about the earliest people to inhabit the continent. All information about our prehistory would belong exclusively to the tribes.”

” Contact your Senators and Representatives in Washington DC and voice your concern that this reportedly ‘non-consequential’ amendment to S.2843 has passed committee review without the benefit of public review or any consideration of the far-reaching consequences.”

The ATADA Board of Directors has asked me to create a “Legislative Alert” web page. More information on this alert will shortly be posted to the new web page.

There are numerous issues of importance to collectors and dealers alike. I am looking for help to collect information to be posted on our new web page. I am inviting all of you to send me subjects for posting and I am especially looking for help in keeping up to date on these rapidly developing topics.

Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter.

Arch Thiessen, ATADA Webmaster