Chamorro cultural advocates slammed yesterday government leaders overseeing the disposal of 332 human remains and artifacts uncovered on the construction grounds of the Saipan casino in Garapan, complaining that they have tried and tried to obtain information from the local Historic Preservation Office on the \u201cdisposition and whereabouts\u201d of these remains but with no success.<\/p>\n
In a letter to the HPO and the Department of Community and Cultural Affairs, the Matua Council for Chamorro Advancement called for the resignation of HPO director and State Historic Preservation officer Mertie Kani and Department of Community and Cultural Affairs Secretary Laura Ogumoro for allegedly not taking the lead on the disposition of these remains. <\/p>\n
The council also tries to paint these two government offices as unacceptably inactive in regards to the repatriation and re-internment of another 263 remains and artifacts discovered on this old Samoa Housing site by previous archaeologists 17 years ago.<\/p>\n
Saipan Tribune failed to obtain comments from HPO, DCCA, and the Saipan casino, Best Sunshine International, Ltd., after receiving a copy of the council\u2019s letter late afternoon yesterday.<\/p>\n
The Matua council has repeatedly cried their dismay over the construction of a 14-story casino resort towering over the heart of Garapan and built on grounds the advocates believe is an ancient Chamorro burial site. Last February, HPO approved the casino\u2019s archaeological project to enter 18 burial sites and exhume the remains of ancient Chamorros.<\/p>\n
In her letter, council president Liana Hofscheneider writes for a \u201ctechnical report\u201d for Anaguan, the ancient site. She said the letter serves as a third time it has been requested. The report was due to HPO\u2014after an extension given\u2014last Nov. 30.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2026We need to have the information regarding the disposition and whereabouts of the 332 human remains and artifacts immediately as these historical resources are not your or the government to unilaterally dispense,\u201d or for the location to \u201cbe kept in secrecy.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThese historical resources rightfully belong to our people, the Chamorros,\u201d Hofschneider said.<\/p>\n
Other complaints<\/strong><\/p>\n The letter goes on to urge that HPO rescind an agreement between them and the casino\u2019s hired archaeologists to \u201cborrow for one year or more the human remains, and artifacts, and anything found\u201d at the site. This includes shipping the remains off-island, Matua claims.<\/p>\n The council also says the reason of \u201ca lack of funding\u201d to recover the previous 263 remains uncovered on site in the late 1990s was unacceptable.<\/p>\n \u201cIt has been over 17 years since our ancestors have waited to be given the honor and respect to be reinterred to their resting place,\u201d Hofschneider said. This means it has been \u201c17 years of budget requests that your office should have taken initiative\u201d on. \u201cThe lack of funding excuse to this fiasco does not qualify as a reason to justify your neglect of duty.\u201d<\/p>\n She said to give authority and disposition of the 332 remains to the casino archaeologists furthers \u201cthe insult to this issue.\u201d<\/p>\n In calling for Kani\u2019s resignation, the council also asks why office archaeologists Eric Lash and Jennings Bunn resigned in a span of six months in 2015, and why historian Ray Muna resigned also.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Chamorro cultural advocates slammed yesterday government leaders overseeing the disposal of 332 human remains and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[94],"tags":[256,9208,1093,3400],"class_list":["post-218892","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-headlines","tag-casino","tag-eric-lash","tag-hpo","tag-ray-muna"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218892","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/47"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=218892"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218892\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=218892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=218892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}