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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (March 2, 1989)
-ya.L «g| 1 P i y ^ . WEATHER: INDEX Pk 1 0™% 9 •#«% sssriSidy'^r^'cSSSeM: gsssr.-.v.v-.v.v.i H Vk I 8l£ V i^f IB 1 j| HT II lows 15-20. Friday, 50 percent chance of oXon!.7 l®yl B8”1 j§5§ mu m JHMRl HI m snow, highs 25-30. Saturday through Mon Sports.15 WL HP ®p §» £m HI 18 j&M HI B 1H day, chance of snow Saturday, colder with Classifieds 18 JL ^1 W llto^ JL. JL SL W*** M°n^' hahmmld.40s. _ March 2,1989 University of Nebraska-Lincoln___Vol. 88 No. 112 Legislature advances burial remains bill By Jerry Guenther Staff Reporter The Nebraska Legislature Wednesday gave first-round approval to an amended bill requiring the Nebraska State Histori cal Society to return skeletal remains and burial goods to the Pawnee Indi ans. LB340, sponsored by Sen. Ernie Chambers of Omaha, passed by a vote of 25-7 after the Government, Military and Veterans Affairs Com mittee added several amendments to the bill. Chambers called the bill a “first step" toward rectifying some of the abuses that have been committed against American Indians, but said the amended version was not com pletely satisfactory "This bill has been diluted and watered down to a point that I person ally would not accept were I repre senting this issue for me and mine," Chambers said. American Indians have made con siderable compromises while negoti ating for the bill. Chambers said. Included in those compromises is a committee amendment that allows for the return of only those burial goods that can be proven to belong to a specific skeletal remain. Sen. Dennis Baack of Kimball, chairman of the committee, said the tribes originally requested the return of all burial goods. Baack said the amendment greatly reduces the number of items that would have to be returned because many of the burial goods are not traceable to specific skeletons. According to research done for the Native American Rights Fund, Baack said. 1,054 non-bead burial goods would have to be returned with the amendment, although the historical society has quoted higher figures. Another committee amendment allows the Nebraska Department of Roads to remove unmarked burial sites if the sites are in the way of a street or highway construction proj ect. Baack said this amendment was added at the request of the roads department Other committee amendments narrowed and clarified the scope of the bill. The committee voted 27-0 to adopt the amendments. In arguing for passage of LB340, Chambers said it is important to understand that the skeletal remains were not “inadvertently” dug up by road construction crews or those building irrigation systems. “These burial sites were deliber ately sought out, deliberately plun dered, deliberately ransacked, delib erately desecrated,” he said. “What we are talking about with this bill is nothing less than human dignity, and what we are asking for is common decency,” he said. Chambers also said American Indians should not be required to prove the validity of their religion in order to retain the burial goods of their family and tribal members. Just like a blessed rosary holds a special significance when buried with deceased Catholics, Chambers said, burial goods placed with Ameri can Indians should be respected as having a similar “consecrated sig nificance.” Chambers said that many times the remains of humans take on a “spiritual meaning.” “If we were looking at these bones only as material substance,” Cham bers said, * ‘they in fact would have no more significance than the remains of carcasses that we find in the slaugh terhouse.” Before the bill passed, an amend ment that would have removed burial goods from the bill was defeated 17 21-4. Sen. Jerome Warner of Waverly, sponsor of the amendment, said he See BURIAL on 6 ASUN endorsement of remains bill debated By Ryan Sleeves Staff Reporter niversity of Nebraska-Lincoln student leaders heard mostly false, one-sided testimony when they voted to endorse legislation protecting graves and human burial remains, a UNL professor said Wednesday night Doug Bamforth, UNL assistant professor of anthropology, said senators of the Association of Students of the University of Nebraska passed e bill endorsing LB340 based on false information presented by the bill’s supporters. AS UN voted last week to endorse LB34Q, which the Nebraska Legislature gave first round approval to Wednesday. LB340, amended Wednesday, would regu late use of all unmarked graves in Nebraska. It also would create a set time for study of skele tal remains and burial goods found in those graves. After this time, those buried items would be returned to the owners. At least three opponents to LB340 spoke in (men forum at the meeting. Several supporters also spoke, but ASUN took no further action on the issue. Bam forth objected to statements made by James Botsford, an attorney who runs the In dian Law Office in Walthill. At last week’s ASUN meeting, Botsford said many graves are often ‘’ransacked in the name of science.” Bamforth said Botsford’s comments im plied that archaeologists dig up skeletal re mains regularly. But in the last 20 years, only two sites were excavated “professionally,” he said. “And these sites were excavated only be cause they would otherwise have been de stroyed by construction,” Bamforth said. Some Nebraskans do dig up skeletal re mains, he said, but these people are looters who want to make money from remains or add them to their private collections. “These are not professional archaeologists who dig out of respect for the past humans in hope that those humans can teach us something about their lives,” Bamforth said. Waller Echohawk, an attorney for the Na tive American Rights Fund in Boulder, Colo., disagreed with Bamforth. Echohawk said ev ery Pawnee burial site in Nebraska has been violated by both looters and professional ar chaeologists. “The Pawnee people are extremely upset by this, as you can imagine,” he said. Bamforth said he agrees that remains need protection. The question is whether LB340 is the right legislation, he said. Bamforth said he especially objects to vague language in section 4.2 of LB340. That part of the bill states* “Human burial site shall See ASUN on 6 UNL students discuss issues with senators By Larry Peirce Senior Reporter ovemment Liaison Commit tee Chairman Bryan Hill said “Senators on Campus” day Wednesday was about the “most effective” lobbying activity his group has held this year. “Any time you can get students with state senators and you can get them talking, I think that's a suc cess.” Hill said. About 90 students talked to 13 senators over lunch in the Nebraska Union about university issues includ ing equipment surcharges for the College of Engineering and Technol ogy, remodeling in the College of Business Administration and the need for research money. Hill said senators told him they were impressed with the number of students attending and the quality of questions and concerns they had. He said senators told him they were glad they had the opportunity to have di rect contact with the students. Senators want to hear personal problems and experiences the sti* dents have had, he said. Currently, he said, GLC is con ducting letter writing campaigns on behalf of the engineering surcharge, the Office of Scholarships and Finan cial Aid and State Student Incentive Grants. He said that personal contact from the students complimented the letter campaigns. ‘Tetters are good, but there’s nothing *>eiter than having a student constituent talking to a state senator in person,” he said. The university’s budget comes under consideration of the Legisla ture’s Appropriations Committee March 14, he said, and four members See SENATORS on 6 Members of Nebraskans Against the Death Penalty hold a candlelight vigil Wednesday night on the steps outside the state capital building. 40 protest death penalty at State Capitol & ■ Brandon Loomis Senior Reporter _ About 40 protesters prayed to God and Gov. Kay Crr ■ 1 Wednesday night at an anti-death penalty candlelight vigil on the steps of the State Capi The group, protesting at the invitation of Nebraskans Against the Death Penalty, stood on the east steps of the capitol at 8 p.m. and asked God to help stale sena tors understand die plight of death row inmates. “We pray that you’ll have ac cess to the lives of the senators who % make the decisions,” said Leroy Seaver, director of Lincoln Urban Ministries. Last week, the Legislature's Judiciary Committee heard testi mony about LB596, a bill which would abolish the death penally in Nebraska. The committee has yet to vote on whether to advance the bill. From the east steps, the protest ers moved to the north steps, where they read a prayer to the governor from an 8-year-old girl. “I don’t like it (the death pen alty) one bit,” read the letter from Patrice McShane, who attends Randolph Elementary School in Lincoln. *T think it would hurt... Could you change the law for me?” After the grout* had stood at each of the four st&Ways, Kjerstin Bowman, a ninth grader at Lefler , Junior High School, read a Native American prayer adapted from the Lord’s Prayer. “Forgive us and cause us to forgive as well anyone who hurts us,” Bowman read. Bill Koundey, state coordinator of Nebraskans Against the Death Penalty, said the vigil was an at tempt to raise public awareness as die committee prepares to vote on LB596. Since Feb. 21, when Roundey and members of the group began a week-long fast, Lincoln newspa pers have written 10 articles on the group or the bill, he said. But Roundey said the effort may have had less effect on sena tors than he hoped for. Earlier Wednesday, the group distributed invitations to all state senators to attend the vigil. “It’s obvious that we were not too terribly effective at it,’’ Roun dey said, surveying the group. Carl Klamer, a political science sophomore at the University of Nebraska-L incoln, said he came to tiie vigil because he feels states should offer better rehabilitation programs to convicts, not the elec tric chair. “It seems to me that the death penalty isn’t really a deterrent,’’ Klamer said. “And I think that would be the only justification.” Roundey said the vigil was part of a nationwide “Abolition Day” sponsored by the National Coali tion Against the Death Penalty.