What Do You Think of Illinois’ New Reparations Law?
Digging is set to begin in parts of Illinois due to a brand new law that Illinois Governor Pritzker signed last month, this law is aimed at righting the wrongs of our past and returning items to where they were found. This leads us to ask the question, is this the right thing to do?
According to the Associated Press, a new law in Illinois called The Human Remains Protection Act is in place to complement the federal law passed last year the Native American Graves Protection and Reparation Act. So what exactly is this new law leading to here in the Land of Lincoln? The AP goes on to say...
"Native Americans whose ancestors’ remains ended up held for study in sterile, nondescript boxes on shelves in educational facilities or displayed in cultural locales...Key to the measure is first-time authority for tribes to rebury recovered remains in Illinois, which they much prefer to relocating them to states to which the U.S. government forced their relocation nearly two centuries ago. The Illinois State Museum, which holds remains from about 7,000 individuals, is prepared to reunify 1,100 of them with their tribes..."
There are a lot more details to this story and you can read all about it by clicking here!
The key to this new law is the fact that Illinois will give these remains back to their tribs and the state is allowing them to bury these individuals where they were dug up. So these remains are going back exactly where they were found. Here are my two senses on the law, if the tribes want these remains back and they are no longer being used or studied then by all means give them back. And if the area they were dug up in is still around and these remains can be returned to that area easily then it makes a ton of sense to do that. My only question would be...what if the remains were dug up where something like the Sears Tower now stands, or an airport...? What do you do in that scenario?
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