EDITORIAL
Give remains back
to Native Americans
Cultural traditions and the Native American Grave Pro
tection and Reparation Act of 1990 are butting heads on
Native American remains.
The t Jnivorsitv has Native American remains in its pos
session and Native Americans want them back. Howev
er the University believes it is entitled to study the remains
under the Act.
The Native Amoric on Grave Protection and Reparation
Ac! of 1990 required the University and all museums
to notify federally recognized tribes of their holdings bv
November 1993 Any skeletal remains and sacred objects
must be returned by the University to the tribes by 1995
and the University intends to.
The Act has one major stumbling point - the definition
of sacred objects. Many objects are buried with Native
American remains, objects that to the Native Americans
are sacred. However to others they may simply Ire objects.
Much of the conflict of interest stems from the Missouri
flood last summer that unearthed remains, many of them
Native Americ an remains. President ('Union provided
funds for c askets to rebury the remains, but the Native
Americ an remains have been kept
"I hate tin1 word 'repatriation.'" Don Dumond. direr
ten of the University Museum of Natural History, told the
Associated Press. "That implies we know who they are
and we c an give them bac k We would like to do that,
to have this controversy over with. But in all honesty we
have no idea where some of them belong."
" The medicine men tell mo the* Ixcnes cry out. that they
want to be safely put away," said Prosanna Williams, a
spiritual leader who has served as an undertaker for the
Warm Springs, Wasco and Paiute triboa
liven if the remains one! up in tin* wrong burial ground,
it’s belter than in Ixixes in the museum, she said.
The issue seems to lie about the museum and its inter
est in keeping the bones for classification and display,
and the Native Americans wanting the remains buried.
Ac cording to the law the museum has the right to keep
the bones, at least until 1995.
Also according to the law. the remains must lx* returned
to the appropriate tribe. The University argues that it
doesn't know who the appropriate tribe is for some of the
remains.
I ht1 pierces that are ac counted lor should be returned
to their respective homelands for proper burial as soon
as possible. The remains that are not accounted for or
have an unsure identity need to be returned as well. The
cpiestion is. where to return them to'
A logical and appropriate agreement must Ice met
between the tribes and the University about returning the
remains to a resting place. The bones and sacred objects,
objec ts that Native Americans deem sacred and agreed
upon by museum officials, have resting places beyond
the museum as well.
Manv of the remains were unearthed by tin; Missouri
flood, an ac t of nature that produced an archaeological
find Uortainh in the name of science it is necessary to
evaluate the' find, but the evaluation should not take the
maximum time allowed by law ['he remains have a
respectable plat o to rest and it's not a box in a museum.
Oregon Daily
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OKAV, I’fA
(yNCO^R'NC?
THE COVERUP,
7HEN VOu
LET ME GO,
RtGur?
WOO k>
DIAHLV CXPAQT I,?-,
-
OPINION
Whitewater? Gimme a break
RoKHIF RffU>
W hi lew nter, whitewater
What s the big deal?
A bunch of Republi
i ans. in Washington who have
nothing else better to do hut
derail legislation got together to
do something really meaningful
for Amerii a I'hev dug up a i on
i rovers \
I won't bore you with the
details l ike the overwhelming
majority of Ameriums. y ou prof)
ably don't i are Hut some of the
elements of the mm h-vaunted
Whilew ater < ontrov ersv ire
dovvnright odd.
I ake tin- example of the First
I-idyl Hilary Kodhatn Clinton A
little over ,i del ade ago. she
invested some money , and, lo
and behold, she made a titt of
money Actually , she mode a lot
of money Hut this sounds mis
picious, acc ording lo Ropubli
i ans, who would like to crur ify
(my contribution to |esus Week)
her for it Weren't Kepublu arts in
favor of "get ru h quit k " kind of
schemes?
That's only the beginning Hill
Clinton is c harged with improp
erly handling finances yvith
Whitewater, a property deal that
lie was handling yvith a man
named James Mi -something-or
otlier, who is most well-known
for his then really goofy looking
sideburns
Then there an* the accusations
that Clinton misused contribu
tions to his 1984 run for gover
nor of Arkansas, that Hillary's
then law firm had improper deal
ings with the state, and a whole
slew of other things
Pretty soon there will be
Republicans on the floor of the
Mouse yvith other charges "Is it
true, Mr. President, that in 1977
you actually forgot to balance
vour checkbook one month'
thev might start, or {Ntrhaps they
might find out that Hill parked in
Little Rook once without lending
the parking meter Who knows'
Hut more importantly, who
i ares'
I'll admit it right off the hat I'm
partisan, and I think that Hill
(Hinton is doing a pretty good job
I'd probably get mad at anyone
who got in his way of accom
plishing what he is setting out to
do
There are those that claim that
Clinton and the Democrats are
'fair game" because Democrats
exposed the Iran-Contra si.amlai
w ith Ronald Reagan, or because
Kir hard Nixon i aim- pretty close
to being impeached for Water
gate
Nonsense There is a big dif
letcm e between Watergate, lran
Coittra-gate. and what might he
tailed Whjlowatergate Watergate
and Iran (iontra both were direr t
results of the at lions o! a presi
dent while he was serving his
term .is president The Watergate
complex (which, of course. Nixon
was running flu re-election in)
was broken into during the 1972
presidential campaign, while the
Iran-Contra affair was a direi t
result of the policies of the Rea
gan administration.
On the other hand, the i hurges
that Hill (Hinton is fat mg now all
relate to things that he allegedly
did (or had knowledge of) while
he was governor of Arkansas
Nothing that relates to Whitewa
ter, the land dealing (notice that
most ot the charges don’t specif
ically relate to the land deal, hut
that doesn’t stop ’em from com
plaining in Washington) is curred
during Clinton s term as Presi
dent.
So why do Republicans care
about Whitewater7 Htx a use. often
times, they can’t win on the
issues Clinton has. often times,
a supportive Congress in which
he can pass his policies, and
without something like While
water to gum up (tie works, much
of his stuff would (>ass
Hut now that Whitewater is the
controversy that it is. people
The Clintons will
survive this
controversy just
like all of the
others, and in a
year, Whitewater
will have gone the
way of Gennifer
Flowers and the
Arkansas state
trooper fiasco.
seem to forgot that Clinton is try
nig to pass some important pro
grams Instead, in the true Amer
ican tradition, the irrelevant
controversy cat< lies more atten
tion than anything else
Leaders in Congress are appar
ently in the process of negotia
tions that yvill decide how this
whole thing will lie resolved It
looks like it yvill mean hearings
of some sort or another And
yy Inle Republicans swear (vs ith
out breaking into laughter) that
they really aren't try ing to stop
the President's programs from
passing, the fact is that if hear
ings are going on. Congress is
going to grind to a halt. Repre
sentatives can't Im- m two places
at the same time
What would you rather your
representative lie doing?
The Clintons will survive this
controversy just like all of the
others, and in a year. Whitewa
ter will have gone the way of
Gennifer Flowers and the
Arkansas state trooper fiasi o it's
unfortunate, however, that it will
take several months to resolve the
problem m Congress
And by the way, rumor has it
that there are still plots for sale
at Whitewater, a somewhat-tol
erable looking place in Arkansas.
Interested? Give the President a
call. He'd love to hear from you.
I'm sure.
Hobble Reeves is a columnist
for the Lmerald