Without Ethics and Morality: A Historical Overview of Imperial Archaeology and American Indians
![handle is hein.journals/arzjl24 and id is 25 raw text is: ARTICLES
Without Ethics and Morality: A Historical
Overview of Imperial Archaeology and
American Indians
James Riding In*
To us the ashes of our ancestors are sacred and their resting
place is hallowed ground. You [white Americans] wander far from
the graves of your ancestors and seemingly without regret ...
Your dead cease to love you and the land of their nativity as
soon as they pass the portals of the tomb and wander way beyond
the stars. They are soon forgotten and never return. Our dead never
forget the beautiful world that gave them being. They still love its
verdant valleys, its murmuring rivers, its magnificent mountains,
sequestered vales and verdant lined lakes and bays, and ever yearn
in tender, fond affection over the lonely hearted living, and often
return from the Happy Hunting Ground to visit, guide, console
and comfort them.'
Seattle, Chief of the Suquamish and Duwamish tribes, 1853
I. INTRODUCTION: PROFESSIONAL GRAvE DESECRATION
Law, morality, and ethics are functions of culture. In this sense,
attitudes of a society toward its dead are passed on generationally and
usually codified. English common law, for example, mandates punish-
* James Riding In, an enrolled member of the Pawnee Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma, is
an assistant professor of Justice Studies at Arizona State University. He received an A.A. degree
in general education from Haskell Indian Junior College, Lawrence, Kansas, a B.A. in history
from Fort Lewis College, Durango, Colorado, and an M.A. in American Indian Studies and a
Ph.D. in history from the University of California, Los Angeles. Professor Riding In has conducted
repatriation research for the Native American Rights Fund on behalf of the Pawnee Tribe. Among
other things, he has authored another article on repatriation and two studies, an M.A. thesis and
a Ph.D. dissertation on Pawnee history. He is now revising his dissertation for publication.
1. THoMAs E. SANDERS & WALTER W. PEEK, LrrERATuRE OF THE AmIEscAN IN IAN 283-84
(1973).](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/arzjl24&div=12&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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Without Ethics and Morality: A Historical Overview of Imperial Archaeology and American Indians
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