Indian remains locked away in state custody deserve a proper burial.
State has moral obligation to act.
A tradition of indefensible inaction by authorities has finally ended with the urgent attention now being given to the release of more than 100 Indian remains in state custody. The long unsettled fate of the remains is shockingly callous. Equally shocking, perhaps, is the lack of effort to return the remains until this secret shame became public. Clearly, embarrassment, and not a moral obligation to the deceased and their families, is what has prompted this sudden decision by state leaders to take action. Gene Norris, chief of the Cherokee in South Carolina, says state officials had been unresponsive and even hostile on one occasion to his request to have the remains released.