She says the society agreed to keep the name private, hoping that other Bay County families might come forward. Grave materials from the Fletcher site cemetery are missing still. Nationwide, the federal law has been used successfully to encourage and force the return of thousands of American Indian remains to U.S. tribes from public and private museums. In Michigan, reburials tend to be private and rare. But one of the largest reburials was the transfer of the 93 sets of Fletcher-site remains from Michigan State University Museum to the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe.
Scientists mourn the loss of knowledge that comes with reburying rather than studying what is found.
They just don't occur anywhere else. But the tribes mourn the loss of privacy and honor. For the last nine years, since the 1990 law was enacted, both sides have tried to find a middle ground. It's been an uneasy truce. But we're losing a lot of important information.