The Kansas Burial Pit Exhibition of Giants Leads to NAGPRA
The Salina Journal, June 11, 1972
Cemetery Draws Tourists, Protests
" John Price and his brother Howard, 73 have operated the graveyard as a public attraction since 1936, when the first graves on their hog ranch five miles east of Salina were discovered.
Exhibited are the remains of giant Indians believed to have lived in Kansas 800 years ago. “I can recall only two or three people in the last 37 years who didn't think it was worth 50 cents.”
The hog farmer admitted, however, that he has had complaints in recent months. “that bunch raisin hell in Wounded Knee stopped by here last fall,” said Price. “They claimed we're violating the rights of Indians by displaying the bones.”
“They said the skeletons were only 150 years old. They asked how'd we like it if our relatives were dug up and Indians charges admission for people to see them.”
The Price brothers said they presented the Indians with documents from the Smithsonian Institution showing that carbon 14 tests taken of the skeletons indicated the burials took place about 1200 A.D.
Dr. W. R. Wedel, Assistant Curator of Archaeology of the Smithsonian Institution, is convinced these burials are real Indians of unknown origin, but with resemblances to others previously found in Kansas and Nebraska."
The Hopewellian artifacts and burial types would cause me to dispute the Smithsonian's date of 1200 A.D. The Hopewell era ended around 500 B.C. The Pawnee are believed to have traveled north from their original homeland in Mexico to the Plains, when they arrived it was inhabited by the Sioux. This was the importance of the Pawnee's claim that the remains were only 150 years old. The fact that Pawnee were not mound builders, the skull types, pottery, burial types, religion were all completely different, became irrelevant.
In the end, when it comes to NAPGRA, science, and history, doesn't matter.
