Page 129 - Knighted_2018

The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act at Ocmulgee National Monument:
Attempting to Connect a Modern Nation to an Artificially “Un-Claimable” Past
Micheal Williams

The excavation of Native American sites has generated significant controversy in recent
decades, especially regarding archaeological explorations of ceremonial and burial activities.
The persistent mistrust between Native American nations and scholars has produced
disagreements about how to reconcile the demands of historical research while maintaining
respect for the preservation of Native American rights and culture. The Native American Graves
Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) of 1990, currently one of the most influential
statutes to limit the destruction of Native burial sites, has molded much of current scholarly
practice. Though this legislation offers significant protection to certain American Indian sacred
sites, ceremonial objects, and human remains, problems surrounding these culturally sensitive
topics endure.

In Middle Georgia one ancient Native American site has been at the center of a Native
American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act struggle for nearly thirty years. Ocmulgee
National Monument is home to the cultural remnants of several thousand years of human
occupation. During numerous excavations, spanning from the middle of the nineteenth to the
early twentieth centuries, dozens of sets of human remains have been unearthed at the Ocmulgee
site, first during the construction railways in the1840s and 70s, then in the 1930s as part of the
largest archaeological excavation in Georgia's history.1 Conventional archaeological wisdom
holds that the majority of these remains represent individuals from a culture which is old enough
to have no connection with living American Indian peoples. This methodology essentially cuts
off modern, or historic, people from culturally relevant prehistoric (pre-contact) civilizations.

1 Lonnie Davis, interview by author, Macon, February 1, 2018.

124