Blocked by the courts, the tribes are now seeking a far-reaching political fix. They’ve enlisted the help of McCain, who has just shepherded a bill through his Senate Indian Affairs Committee. It’s actually a big piece of Indian legislation — one of those monster bills that almost nobody bothers to read from front to end. Tucked away in a hidden corner, the NAGPRA revision involves just a pair of words. Yet they would change everything.Here’s how the law currently reads:
“Native American” means of, or relating to, a tribe, people, or culture that is indigenous to the United States.
Here’s the proposed revision:
“Native American” means of, or relating to, a tribe, people, or culture that is or was indigenous to the United States.
Those two words — “or was” — would transform the meaning of NAGPRA. To paraphrase a famous former Washingtonian, they would alter what the meaning of “is” is.
Spokesmen for the bill, as Miller points out, are being very disingenuous about its consequences:
McCain’s office recently told the Associated Press that the NAGPRA revision would not apply to Kennewick Man. Aides to senators Maria Cantwell of Washington and Gordon Smith of Oregon said the same thing.“That’s just not true,” says Schneider. “If this becomes law, the case will reopen.”
Moreover, new discoveries of ancient remains — Kennewick Man’s kid sister, for instance, or an extinct human species such as Homo floresiensis — would be placed beyond the reach of science. In the name of a bogus multiculturalism, the story of our common human heritage would be revoked from us.
*There's an apt pun in there.
(Related links here.)