Same Ground

.
             The truth of the matter is that bodies of all races are being discovered and uncovered and the same ethical issues arise. In the case in New York City where the construction of the Federal office was being built on the largest colonial-era cemetery that covered a large amount of African American slaves. This particular case shows the different ethical and political views. First you have a company who is trying to build a tower strike a burial site and some destruction to the ancient burials occurs. This infuriates some of the African American community and this leads to the halting of the tower construction and an excavation of the burial grounds. The state senator David Patterson formed a committee to oversee the excavation. The committees main concern was to seek the involvement of African American anthropologist (Harrington 1993). The cemetery which turned out to also hold the bones of whites did not cause such a stir in the white community. Many of the African Americans feel that they should leave the bodies of these slaves in peace. The company wants to proceed with the building of the tower because they have invested a large sum of money. So the ethics begin to get bent around money and politics. The result of the whole issue is the study of the bones for twelve years and then the reburial of the African American slaves that were uncovered in 1991 and are being returned to the earth in the African Burial Ground in October 2003. .
             Going back to the race issue and having the actual kinfolk make decisions towards the excavation of ancestors makes for both sides to be happy. The archaeologists are happy because they have been given the ok to dig. In the case of the Cherokees where an actual Cherokee tribe official is personally helping with the uncovering of information of his tribes ancestors. They have found the reason for the high number of diabetics in the tribe today. The reason stemming from the fact that over eighty percent of the protein in their past histories diet came from buffalo (Bones of Contention 1996:video).