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Dec. 2, 2000 Journal and Wire Reports The U.S. BLM improperly allowed the reburial of American Indian remains on federal lands in Colorado, the Interior Department’s inspector general has found. The burials apparently occurred in 1997 or 1998, but the inquiry into them was disclosed for the first time this week in the inspector general’s semiannual report. The report offered few details of the reburials and did not indicate whether any BLM officials were disciplined. Susan Thomas, curator of the Anasazi Heritage Center in Dolores, said Thursday she believed the report was on the reburial of two sets of American Indian remains by the Ute Mountain Tribe on U.S. Forest Service lands in 1997 and a reburial by members of the Northern Ute tribe in 1998. "We engaged in repatriation with the Ute Mountain Tribes and the Northern Ute, and they determined reburial locations based on information that we provided to them," said Thomas. She explained that they have been trying to negotiate an agreement with the tribes to help them with reinternment, which, she says is "not part of their culture." The center is one of the federal government’s largest holdings of American Indian remains, with 426 sets. The remains are supposed to be returned to tribes that can claim then under provisions of the 1990 Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. The report said unnamed BLM officials in Colorado allowed the reburials despite a 1996 policy against such reburials on federal land. The report quoted unidentified BLM officials as saying they believed the policy impeded the government’s intent to repatriate American Indian remains. "Some tribes wanted the remains to be reburied near the original burial sites on public lands," the report said. "Therefore, these officials allowed Native American remains to be reburied on BLM-managed public lands." |
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