Respect for Native Remains Mennonite Central Committee U.S. administers the Return to the Earth Project, which seeks to assist in the repatriation of unidentifiable Native remains. Return to the Earth seeks to find respectful burial grounds for the remains and provides cedar burial boxes and burial cloths. During the colonial period, European powers began collecting the remains of the colonized from around the globe in order to study them, hoping to find proof of the “inferiority” of the peoples they had conquered. This practice continued in the United States after independence from Britain. In 1868, the Surgeon General of the Army began asking for the skulls of indigenous people throughout the United States for study. This led to a decades-long desecration of Native remains from battlefields, hospitals, and burial grounds. Between 600,000 and 2 million skeletal remains were shipped to museums, universities and scientific labs throughout the country. Today, over 100,000 unidentifiable remains continue to be stored in repositories throughout the country. The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) provides a method for returning Native remains (as well as sacred objects) to Tribes, where they can be buried with honor and dignity. For more information, please visit the Return to the Earth project.
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