Protect Sacred Burial Sites

New York is one of only four states in the U.S. without protections for unmarked burial sites, meaning that human remains found on private lands here are vulnerable to desecration and/or destruction. We want New York State Governor Kathy Hochul to approve legislation that would change that. Help us send a message urging Governor Hochul to sign the Unmarked Burial Site Protection Act into law. This piece of legislation will create a Native American Burial Site Review Committee to protect indigenous unmarked graves and supervise incidents when remains are unintentionally uncovered.

Sacred burial sites are regularly unearthed ...

New York is one of only four states in the U.S. without protections for unmarked burial sites, meaning that human remains found on private lands here are vulnerable to desecration and/or destruction. We want New York State Governor Kathy Hochul to approve legislation that would change that. Help us send a message urging Governor Hochul to sign the Unmarked Burial Site Protection Act into law. This piece of legislation will create a Native American Burial Site Review Committee to protect indigenous unmarked graves and supervise incidents when remains are unintentionally uncovered.

Sacred burial sites are regularly unearthed on private lands in every corner of New York State. State law provides no protections or provisions for securing remains or funerary objects or even for reporting their discovery. Under existing statute, human remains found on private lands are unprotected; bodies can be destroyed with impunity and funerary objects can be stolen and removed.

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Your email will help put pressure on Governor Hochul to sign the Unmarked Burial Site Protection Act into law and protect indigenous culture and sacred sites.

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RE: S5701/A6724, the Unmarked Burial Site Protection Act

Dear Governor Hochul,

I am writing to urge you to sign S5701/A6724, the Unmarked Burial Site Protection Act, into law. The Unmarked Burial Site Protection Act is a critically important bill, both for respectfully protecting Indigenous rights and for developing large-scale renewables in New York.

As the state looks to increase the number of wind turbines, solar panels, battery storage units, and ancillary infrastructure statewide, it must recognize that doing so necessarily means increasing the number of acres of developed land. By permitting development on hitherto undeveloped, or barely developed land, the state will also be permitting land disturbances. And land disturbance, especially in sensitive areas, has the potential to impact or destroy Native Nations’ cultural resources including unmarked graves and former village and hunting sites, among others.

New York is one of only four states that do not have protections for unmarked burial sites. Sacred burial sites are regularly unearthed on private lands in every corner of New York State, and until and unless this bill is signed, state law provides no protections or provisions for securing remains or funerary objects or even reporting their discovery. Under existing statute, human remains found on private lands are vulnerable to desecration and/or destruction; bodies can be destroyed with impunity and funerary objects can be stolen and removed.

The Native American Graves and Protection Act (25 USC 3001, et. seq.), the federal law that protects remains on federal lands and institutions that receive federal funding, does not apply to privately held lands. New York needs its own law.

Under New York’s existing law cultural resources like cemeteries and historic sites are afforded protections due to the land’s sacred or historic purpose; New York would not permit a solar farm or turbine that was proposed within a cemetery or on gravesites. In order to work toward equity, the state must take all precautions to ensure that renewable resources are not sited in a way that disturbs Native Nations’ cultural resources. As Onondaga Faithkeeper Oren Lyons said about the land, “We’ve been here a long time. This is where we’re buried, where all our people are buried... the ground literally is our dust.”

The legislation will create a Native American Burial Site Review Committee, whose responsibility will be to determine the appropriate solutions to inadvertent discovery. It will protect human remains from unfettered destruction and desecration by requiring anyone who discovers human remains or funerary objects to cease land disturbance and immediately report the discovery to the coroner or medical examiner in the county in which the remains were discovered. If the remains are determined to be more than 50 years old, the medical examiner or coroner will reach out to the state’s archaeologist, which begins a process to identify whether the remains are Native American and notify the appropriate tribe or nation. Further, the bill vests descendants, or the appropriate tribe or nation, with the right of possession and stewardship. Finally, the bill establishes penalties for failing to report as well as unlawfully possessing remains or funerary objects and empowers the New York State Attorney General or any aggrieved party to bring a civil action in supreme court to enforce the law.

This bill is desperately needed to protect unmarked graves from accidental disturbance as well as intentional looting, especially considering the state’s goals for developing large-scale renewable projects. These projects are essential for meeting New York’s climate goals, and many of them are planned for areas that are well-known historic village sites. If the state is not intentional about protecting these sites, it will continue the centuries-long practice of disrespecting native culture and communities. We can and must do all we can to meet our climate goals while ensuring our Native neighbors' buried ancestors are afforded the same respect the State affords those buried in cemeteries.

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