| An explanatory note:
What follows are the contents of an email sent by Prof. Tim White (Berkeley, Hearst Museum) on July 12, 1999 prior to his departure for Ethiopia, and subsequently circulated by others. He has requested that we forward this information to interested colleagues. The email begins below and continues with the NAGPRA Review Committee Draft Agreement and concludes with his letter to the committee. As you will read below,
comments on the NAGPRA Review Committee Draft
Agreement However, if you wish to have your comments published on this web site, please send your letter in the body of an email to webmaster@kellywebworks.com. More letters Clark
Spencer Larsen In addition, a petition to extend the comment period will be mailed from this site on August ??. If you wish to endorse this petition please go here. (This action is pending given notification of an extension.)
Dear colleagues, Apologies for the bulk e-mail nature of this. Under the circumstances it seemed the most efficient method of contact. As most of you know, the 1990 Native American Graves Repatriation and Protection Act mandates that human skeletal remains culturally AFFILIATED to federally recognized groups are eligible for repatriation. In that law, Congress left it to a NAGPRA committee of seven individuals to promulgate regulations regarding culturally UNIDENTIFIABLE remains. As you also know, many of the nation's prehistoric human remains are culturally unidentifiable. If you're on the mailing list, you know the value of these remains. The NAGPRA committee has finally drafted language in this regard. As you will see from the embedded draft, and my embedded letter of response, the committee has chosen to go far beyond both Congressional intent and the letter of the law. It is very important that concerned skeletal biologists take the opportunity to immediately and forcefully comment on these proposals. Unfortunately, time is short. We must address our comments to: The NAGPRA Review Committee Please note that they DO NOT ACCEPT e-mail comments, only hard copy. Please also note the deadline of AUGUST 15th, 1999. You can draw your own conclusions about these restrictions. I urge each of you to write to the committee. It is very important that as many individual and institutional voices as possible be raised regarding this issue. You may find copies of the proposed draft (that are easier to read than what I've embedded here) at the following www addresses: http://www.cast.uark.edu/other/nps/nagpra/nagpra.dat/rcrec003.pdf http://www.cast.uark.edu/other/nps/nagpra/nagpra.dat/rcrec003.html For texts of the
laws and regulations themselves, I leave this week for Ethiopia, but my letter below is in the mail, and I hope yours will be soon. Please don't hesitate to forward this communication to the attention of other researchers and institutions that might be able to write appropriate letters. Thanks in advance to you all, and apologies for the length and impersonal nature of this alert. No need to reply to this e-mail--I can't answer until August anyway. If you don't care about the potential destruction of the country's prehistoric skeletal research collections, I'm sorry to have bothered you with this message. Have a good summer. Cordially, Tim White Draft Agreement ~ Tim White's Letter ~ Petition for Extension ~ Home |
