AUSTIN, Texas — On Sept. 7 at 6 p.m., relatives and allies of the Miakan-Garza band of the Coahuiltecan people will gather at a University of Texas research laboratory to demand the return of the human remains of three ancestors.
According to the Indigenous Cultures Institute, the assembly will be held at the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory (TARL) at the J.J. Pickle Research Campus. Organizers will be on-hand to provide historical information about the remains and to offer prayers and gifts to the ancestors.
Attendees are asked to wear masks, bring water, and to maintain 6 feet of distance from those around them.
The event follows a petition sent to the university on July 13 by the Miakan-Garza band, demanding the return of the three ancestors. The original request was made in 2016 and was refused recently in July 2020 by TARL.
"It is vital that these Indigenous ancestors be returned to the land and to their kin for proper burial," the institute said in a press release. "We support the Miakan-Garza band’s claim to this right."
The institute claims the denials violate the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. The act's databases catalog more than 7 million Culturally Unidentifiable Inventoried (CUI) Native American remains that have been discovered over the years and are kept in “collections” by universities, museums and federal and state departments.
"This has happened in a country where it is against the law to disturb a human grave," the institute said.
The event is also being streamed on the Indigenous Cultures Institute's Facebook and Instagram pages.
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