[Vigilanteman]

True store from the late 1980's. I had an inside relationship with one of the key people in the North Dakota State Historical Society Museum in Bismarck. This was about the same time the agitation not to study Native American remains but to "return" them to their tribal owners for proper burial reached a crescendo.

Never mind that the tribal "owners" were both genetically and centuries separated from the remains in question. For more enlightenment on that mindset, Google "Kennewick Man".

In any event, he showed me remains from the archives carbon dated from the 1400's (before any known white man had ever set foot in North Dakota). They showed the presence of TB, a disease supposedly brought by the white man. The guy was a scientist and not in the least bit political, but it was his opinion that the agitation over remains was strictly a political issue raised to halt scientific study of these and other studies which might cast doubt on the popular shibboleths of this era.

[marktwain]

The idea of Indian genocide is simply another way to discredit the successes of the United States. The left cannot allow for a successful united states based on freedom. To do so discredits their entire view of the universe.

[Thermalseeker]

Never mind that the tribal "owners" were both genetically and centuries separated from the remains in question.

I have a friend who likes to hunt for native artifacts, spear points, arrow points, pottery shards, beads, gaming stones, pipes, tomahawk heads, etc. For centuries, this area of SE Tennessee was home to tribes who made spear and arrow points, some dating back 11,000 YBP. People have been picking them up by the bucketfuls in plowed fields and along river banks for over 150 years here. The Cherokee of western NC are adamantly opposed to those who hunt for artifacts, even on private land. Some have turned into virtual mercenaries for their cause. My friend was once confronted and physically assaulted for hunting artifacts along the Tennessee River on private land. The Cherokee aren't related to the Woodlands era tribes who lived here, but that doesn't stop them from trying to prevent folks from picking up rocks (flint) that just happened to have been altered by someone unrelated to them 1200 years ago.

[Coyoteman]

They showed the presence of TB, a disease supposedly brought by the white man.

See Prehistoric Tuberculosis in the Americas, by J.E. Buikstra (1981).

[IronJack]

Your experience should be publicized nationally. It erodes one of the myths of the Euro-Indian culture clash, and sets the record straight for anyone interested in the TRUTH of history.