Ancient remains will likely be re-interred in special burial site

It is always preferred to return ancient remains to the site from which they were unearthed.

“Reburial is the last resort. The Elders reiterate about not disturbing remains. Re-interring remains is asking for another burial,” said Ross Gariepy, interim director at the Saskatchewan Indian Cultural Centre, who works with the Elders Advisory Council. “It’s most important if they can return (the remains) to where they were found.”

But that may not be the case for either of the remains found in July. Bones that were found on the shore of Moosimin Lake seemed to have been washed up from another site, said Carlos Germann, director at the Heritage Conservation Branch, and the remains found in Oxbow, although that does seem to be the actual burial site, cannot be re-interred there because of an on-going housing development.

Finding ancient remains is not uncommon, but “the two last month is a little unusual,” said Germann.

Often time remains are unearthed naturally, which includes erosion, like in the Moosimin Lake case, where the bones were unearthed because of high waters, or through land development, which includes housing, agriculture, pipelines and road-building, which is the Oxbow findings.

Finding – or avoiding – burial sites is difficult.

“These ancient burials really don’t have any particular pattern to them. Wasn’t like they were all buried in the same place…in marked out cemeteries. We’re dealing with people who were largely nomadic in their lifestyle and moved. When people died they were buried nearby wherever that may have occurred,” said Germann.
When remains are found, the RCMP is immediately involved as the remains may be related to a homicide or a missing person case.

In these two cases, the RCMP worked with Dr. Ernest Walker, a forensic anthropologist from the University of Saskatchewan, to determine the age of the bones. When they were tagged as an archeological find, jurisdiction went from federal to provincial under the Heritage Property Act.

Radiocarbon dating is usually not used to determine the age of the remains. Instead, physical evidence is taken into consideration, such as colour and texture of bones, which indicate how long they’ve been in the ground, and association with other items nearby. Both remains found in July were estimated to be at least 500 years old. The Moosimin remains were found with shell beads, while the Oxbow bones were stained with red ochre, both determining Aboriginal origin. The department goes a step further to distinguish between First Nations or Métis remains

In the past, such discoveries were turned over to museums, such as the Royal Saskatchewan Museum, or the University of Saskatchewan, for educational purposes.

“This was not deemed particularly appropriate as we started establishing better working relations with First Nations people. They made it quite clear that retaining human remains of the ancestors in cardboard boxes, in museum collections and university collections was simply inappropriate unless there was a real good reason to do so, they ought to be reburied,” said Germann.

In the mid 1990s, a central burial site for ancient remains was established along the South Saskatchewan River. Remains that cannot be returned to their original site of discovery are interred here.

“A reburial ceremony is carried out,” said Gariepy. The Elders Advisory Council, which has members from all the First Nations linguistic groups in Saskatchewan, determines what ceremony is to be used. “We do have Sundance makers or ceremonial people within the EAC who will decide that. We also do traditional burials. We don’t break any protocol when we follow the Elders’ advice.”

Gariepy said there are not very many interments in the South Saskatchewan burial ground.