November 04, 2006

Feel the pain

Thieves of timeIt's difficult for many people to fathom the pain and anguish inflicted on American Indians by the looting of the remains of their ancestors.

Imagine for a moment that police inform you that robbers have raided the pioneer cemetery where your great-grandparents are buried, dug up their graves and stolen their remains.

That gruesome scenario provides a glimmering of what tribal members experience when the graves and ancestral homes of long-dead Native Americans are plundered.
Comment:  Kennewick Man is the most well-known example of these controversies.

1 comment:

writerfella said...

Writerfella here --
In ANASAZI THE SCREENPLAY, there is a 'throwaway scene' in which the lady anthropologist and my hero, Nathan BigHawk, at night discuss modern comparisons of their two cultures (after he has rescued her from a mountain lion). At first, BigHawk's comments to her are about why she and her party are in the desert to begin with, and she asks, "Do you resent the fact that we came here looking for a particular grave?" And he responds, "Let's look at it like this: if I dug up George Washington to see if he really had wooden teeth, your people would be all over me! And I'd go to jail!"
To which she has little reply, except to say, "Mr. BigHawk, you're just a little bit drunk and a whole lot bitter!" And he says, taking a big swig from his beer, "Well, pardon my bitter beer face!"
All Best
Russ Bates
'writerfella'