Re: Last word on Kennewick

[cc136@xxxxxxxxxxx]

This may be your last word, Joan, but I can't let this pass without
comment.  No one has said that science is ONLY or SIMPLY a
culturally-biased tool of oppression.  But it often has been, and it
still has the potential to be so.  What we are saying is that the belief
(and I do stress "belief") that "knowledge for the sake of knowledge"
trumps all other values, like solidarity with native peoples, is wrong
(in the political and moral sense).  At THIS point in history, it is more
important for us to be sensitive, than to poke and prod and measure (and
yes, violate) every human remain found on federal land.

BTW, your claim that the US gov't has violated the separation of church
and state would only be valid if you accept as just the colonial
relationship between the dominant society and native peoples - which is
precisely the point I've been trying to make.

Chris Carrick
PhD. Candidate
Department of City and Regional Planning
Cornell University


On Tue, 14 Aug 2001 ermadog@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

>
>
> My last word on Kennewick.
>
> No one has denied that these bones were found on Federal land. These bones
> are therefore found property of the U.S. government.
>
> The Umatilla themselves say that no matter of sovereignty is involved.
> Their claim to the bones must be construed therefore to be entirely a
> matter of religious belief that the bones belong to an ancestor.
>
> The U.S. government has allowed this religious claim to stand in the way
> of determination of fact. (On the East Coast, skeletal remains might
> actually be of Viking origin. On the West, there is some slight
> possibility of previous migration of earlier people.)
>
> The U.S. government is therefore in violation of the constitutional
> establishment of a wall of separation of church and state, and of the
> constitutional prohibition of establishment of religion.
>
> Since no one on this list likes the value system of the scientists who
> have been studying the bones, I think the bones should be turned over to
> some scientist whose values we like. I vote for Dr. David Suzuki. He will,
> of course, have to be persuaded to abandon his theistic belief in Western
> science and return to the traditional spirituallity of his Japanese
> forbears. He will first have to publicly acknowledge that all his data on
> global warming is entirely valueless since it was derived through the use
> of a cultural construct of oppression, and, furthermore, his use of this
> construct shows that he himself is a racist pig.
>
> After that, we'll burn down all the universities because they are all just
> biased cultural constructs of oppression.
>
> Joan Cameron
>
>