Bringing Them Home

The Shinnecock Graves Protection Warrior Society has made tremendous strides in the past few years in protecting ancient burial sites in Shinnecock Hills and repatriating the remains of Shinnecock ancestors from museums, universities and the private collections of archaeologists. But the group’s work is far from done.

The group’s latest victory took place last month, when the 7,000-square-foot-house that had been erected on the site of an ancient burial ground at Sugar Loaf was razed, finally, in order to preserve the site. The demolition of the home made it possible to bring in ground penetrating radar to explore the site; it proved what the Shinnecock have been saying year after year, generation after generation — that tribal burials had, in fact, taken place on the hill, particularly at its summit, which is considered hallowed ground.

Members of the society hope the study will help make the case that there are still significant sites on the sacred hilltop to preserve, protect and restore.

It hasn’t been an easy road for the Shinnecock in their efforts to keep the tribe’s ancient burial sites from being desecrated. Many have been lost to development over the years as lawmakers and neighbors simply shrugged as the area was built out. The Shinnecock fought for graves protection measures for decades, to no avail. Fortunately, that has changed, due much in part to the work of the society’s leaders — co-chairs Shane Weeks and Rebecca Genia, and attorney Tela Troge — and the eventual understanding and support of local lawmakers.

In 2020, Southampton Town officials, after numerous and unfathomable delays, enacted graves protection legislation, setting up a framework of what property owners must do if they discover human remains on their land, making it easier to step in and protect both the remains and the property. Officials began to consider the legislation after human remains were found at a construction site on Hawthorne Road in Shinnecock Hills in 2018. The property has since been preserved.

State lawmakers are considering similar legislation in Albany that would apply to all corners of New York.

Recent efforts of the Southampton Town Board to work with the Nation are laudable, but there is a lot of history to make up for, and officials must work expeditiously to preserve and protect any new burial sites that are discovered in Shinnecock Hills before it is too late.

Similarly, institutions and archaeologists that continue to possess Shinnecock remains must make every effort to return them to the tribe without delay. The society has worked to repatriate more than 100 sets of remains from the Southold Indian Museum and the Museum of Natural History in New York and is working to bring home the remains of 14 tribe members from the New York State Museum in Albany. It’s simply incomprehensible that in this day and age, institutions and private collectors continue to hold on to human remains.

“These ancestors are speaking to us, because they want to come home,” Weeks said recently.

Indeed. That’s not just a job for the Shinnecock Nation. Let’s all work to bring them home, where they belong.