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JULY 19, 2000

R Michael Gramly, an adjunct professor at Canisius College in New York, will return artifacts he dug up at a 17th century burial ground to the Seneca Nation and the Tonawanda Seneca Nation as part of a settlement with the state and the tribes.

The state and the tribes sued the professor and Canisius College under the Native American Graves and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) of 1990. It was their first action under the law.

"Dr. Gramly had come to this site, dug up artifacts and abused them, taken them back to his office, and human artifacts simply laid in boxes, unpreserved," New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer said on Tuesday. "No effort was made to ensure the integrity of those artifacts."

Gramly had stored the artifacts in a box in a hallway. He has agreed to be liable for $5,000 in fines if he violates the law in the future.

Gramly has been prohibited from excavating any Indian burial grounds in New York. Gramly had dug up the artifacts about 15 miles south of Buffalo as part of a course offered by Canisius College. According to Spitzer, the college was unaware NAGPRA was violated.

Get the Story:
Archaeologist to return Indian remains, artifacts under settlement (AP 7/18)
Archaeologist will return bones to Indians (The Buffalo News 7/18)

Relevant Links:
Canisius College - www.canisius.edu
Sociology / Anthropology, Gramly's Department - www.canisius.edu/programs/sociology.html

Only on Indianz.Com:
NAGPRA (Tribal Law)