| Description |
Limited coverage has been given to comparative studies involving the nature of cultural discourse between American Indians and American mainstream society. This thesis compares two incidents of American Indian and American mainstream discourse involving rare similar circumstances and substantially different outcomes. In 1996, two sets of ancient remains were discovered, one eroding out of the banks of the Columbia River, in Kennewick, Washington, and one discovered during a cave exploration on Prince Wales Island, Alaska. The remains discovered in Kennewick became the focus of an almost decade long battle between a group of eight scientists and the landowners, the Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), which had denied the scientists access to study the remains. USACE, representing tribal interests, wished to repatriate the remains to five tribes who had submitted a claim of ownership. After years of dispute, the federal district court held that the remains were not Native American and therefore fell under the Archaeological Resource Protection Act (ARPA) making them a cultural resource, and granted the scientist plaintiffs the right to study the remains. The 9th Circuit court of Appeals upheld the District Court's opinion. In contrast, the agreement by tribes to support study of the remains discovered at On Your Knees Cave in Alaska faced a 2-week discussion of government officials, interested scientists, and Alaska tribes. All agreed on a plan of scientific study and excavation of the site. Twelve years later, after all requested analysis had been completed, a coalition of interested tribes filed a claim of ownership, and in 2008 the remains were repatriated and reburied. The research question of this thesis was simple: What role did culture play in these two events, and, if it played a significant part, how did culture affect the resulting escalation and de-escalation of conflict. This thesis explores the impact of culture, specifically, differences in cultural element placement, priority, and privilege that led to the disparate amounts of conflict. |
