MORE on the cemetery problems. > >Several members of the Indiana Pioneer Cemeteries Restoration Project >(INPCRP) appeared Wednesday afternoon (1/27/99) to testify before the Senate >Committee on Governmental and Regulatory Affairs, which was discussing two >cemetery bills (SB 178 and 280). > >There will be a hearing before the House of Representatives' Committee on >Agriculture, Natural Resources and Rural Development on: > Monday, February 1, 1999 at 3:30 P.M. > in the House Chambers > (third floor of the State House; east side) > >Additional seating is available in the gallery, accessible from the fourth >floor. > >The House is considering SIX very important cemetery bills, the details of >which and links to the various sponsoring legislators and the full text of >the bills can be found on the INPCRP website under "Pending Legislation" at: > http://www.rootsweb.com/~inpcrp > >If ANY of you are in the Indianapolis area or can be in Indianapolis on >Monday afternoon, we would dearly love for you to join us there. Since the >meeting will be in the House Chambers, they should be able to accommodate a >large turnout. (There were about 40 people crammed into the Committee room >on Wednesday, though a number of them were present regarding other bills.) > >This is a unique opportunity to see our goverment in action and a chance for >our voices to be heard by the men and women who make our laws. > >In my honest opinion, I don't think the Legislators are getting the big >picture here. I don't think they are in touch with the desperate reality of >this situation and it's only by showing up in numbers that they are going to >realize that large numbers of potential voters are watching what happens in >the State House this year. > >Indiana's pioneer family cemeteries (which by some estimates account for 75 >to 90 percent or more of all the burial grounds in the state) have little or >no laws to protect them. Property owners are permitted to abuse, neglect >and obliterate these sites pretty much with abandon. There is only minimal >enforcement of the laws that DO exist. > >Most of the proposed bills will have impact only on cemeteries on "public" >property -- sites owned or controlled by the state, the counties, the >townships and the cities and towns. One bill (HB 1522) will govern how and >under what circumstances our ancestors and predecessors' remains will be >disinterred and reinterred when the real estate upon which they are buried >becomes "ripe for development". > >The real estate developers in this state consider pioneer cemeteries an >impediment and an encumbrance. I can guarantee you that, in years to come, >you will at some point learn that a cemetery to which you feel some bond >will be subject to relocation. How that takes place and what happens to >those human remains, if it must happen, is of tremendous importance to >family historians, genealogists and right-thinking people everywhere. > >Today, if a property owner wants to move a known cemetery on his/her >property or if human remains are found in an unknown cemetery is found >during construction, there is almost a 100% chance that those remains will >be excavated and then warehoused in a university archeology laboratory where >they will be housed INDEFINITELY for "archeological research". > >It's happened on three occasions in the past two years that we know of >today. We're sure it's happened more often that that, but these things are >usually kept hush-hush because they don't want to "offend our >sensibilities". The 35 children and 8 adults that were exhumed two years >ago in Indianapolis to make way for the construction of a warehouse are >STILL on deposit in a laboratory in Indianapolis and there is apparently no >timetable for their reinterment. It happened last summer in Dubois County >and it happened again last December in Shelby County. > >Read the bills yourself. They are all linked from the INPCRP Pending >Legislation pages. Make up your own minds about them. Contact your >legislators and tell them your opinion. Come to the hearing on Monday in >Indianapolis if you can and stand up and tell your Representatives' what you >know and what you believe about the desperate state of the vast majority of >Indiana's pioneer cemeteries. > >Lois Mauk >INPCRP State Coordinator > > > >==== INPCRP Mailing List ==== >Blessed are the Elderly, for they remember what we will never know. > > >