Despite legal action and the objections of local residents, the developers press ahead with their plans to build, and the remains of your ancestors are removed and placed in cardboard boxes, to be reburied AFTER they have been the objects of study for several months.
This is the exact scenario that is now occurring in Davidson County, just outside of Nashville, Tennessee. In the summer of 1997, it was decided that a Wal-Mart/Lowe's Supercenter was to be constructed on land that contains Native American burials and is also a historical Civil War site.
The site contains at least 40 know burials and may contain as many as 60 or more. The burials date back approximately 800 years, to the Mississippian cultural period. The site contains both remains and mortuary goods, along with other artifacts. Both the remains and the artifacts have now become the property of the owner of the site.
Both Native American groups and local residents have taken action to stop the construction of the Wal-Mart/Lowe's Superstore on this site. Local residents are fighting the construction due to the fact that the 372,000 square foot complex is located directly across the street from an elementary school, thus making it a danger to children attending school there.
Native American groups are fighting the construction on the basic premise of what is morally and ethically right or wrong. If this were a white cemetery, would the same thing be happening? Would the remains and burial items of white people be put in boxes, stored for later research? Why is it that we have to study the remains of Native Americans, but do not study the remains of white settlers from pioneer cemeteries?
It essentially comes down to the fact that since the time of first white contact, Euro-American culture does not view Native Americans as human beings on the same level as whites. Early Anthropologists viewed the Native Americans as "savages" and "barbarians" that were not quite human. Since they did not live like European-Americans, they were and continue to be subjected to "study", thus allowing them to search for the reasons why they were different.
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