Human remains removal case goes back to court
White House ruins in Canyon de Chelly National Monument. (Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.)
CHINLE
A case involving human remains removed from Canyon de Chelly has been remanded to U.S. District Court for Arizona.
On April 6, the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the district court’s dismissal of the case, saying the National Park Service’s letter refusing to turn the remains over to the Navajo Nation was “final agency action,” and thus obligates the U.S. Government to waive its sovereign immunity in the case.
The U.S. Department of the Interior had claimed the government was protected by sovereign immunity and could not be sued in this instance.
The Navajo Nation claims that over 300 human remains were removed from the canyon over the years following archeological expeditions. They are currently housed at the Western Archeological and Conservation Center in Tucson. The tribe wants to rebury the remains in Canyon de Chelly.
“The Nation’s position is that the Nation has the right of control over the remains because they were removed without its consent from tribal trust lands affirmed as reservation land under the treaty (of 1868),” the Navajo Nation Office of the Attorney General stated in a press release.
“Therefore, the National Park Service does not have ‘possession or control’ as required to allow it to conduct a cultural affiliation determination under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, the release reads.
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