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Dignity of the Dead

Human Rights, Migrant Death, Reflections

In addition to packing, I am also spending the evening reading the “Protocol Development for the Standardization of Identification and Examination of UBC Bodies Along the U.S.-Mexico Border: A Best Practices Manual”.  These suggested best practices were adopted by Texas last week and provide an outline for the recovery and identification of unidentified migrants.  Part of our trip back to Falfurrias includes a training session on forensic archeology for local law enforcement, which is suggested in the manual. “All entities involved in the recovery of UBC remains should introduce basic training programs and instruction on different aspects of evidence collection, including recovery techniques.”

While the manual contains basic information on proper protocol, it is also laden with reminders of the seriousness of the situation. The fact that these counties are “faced with disaster-scale death numbers” that would stretch the resources of any county in the US.  A reminder of the high death toll of this humanitarian crisis.


Burial marker with "unknown person May 16 2008" on it

The manual also puts a face on the crisis by reminding us that a basic human right includes the expectation that every family should have the opportunity to participate in the decision making process for the disposition of the remains of their loved one.  It reminds me that when people ask me “Why do you…”, “Why don’t you…”, or “Maybe you should…” that I should refer them to the internationally held principle that unidentified remains should be available for families to reclaim.  That there are international requirements for the treatment of the dead. That the 1949 Geneva Convention suggests proper and respectful treatment of the dead including honorable interment and the avoidance of cremation unless imperative for reasons of hygiene.  It reminds us that “For families of the missing, grief may be unresolved for long periods of time, when they do not know what has happened to their loved one. With this in mind, nothing should be done to make this process more difficult for a grieving family.” It’s a reminder that you cannot expect a certain level of respect for you and your family during a difficult process like this unless you extend the same basic level of respect for others.

We feel honored to be invited to Brooks County to conduct a training session. Our work to date has been uncovering the past as an effort to identify those buried without a name. This portion of our trip will contribute to the future of identification efforts.  Part of the training will include understanding the difference between human and nonhuman bone. Wish us luck as we carry the bones used for this portion of training (none are human) in a suitcase through the airport! I have all the documentation needed to show them who we are and what we are doing. But it should still be interesting!

~KEL

The Packing Frenzy

Snapshots

A map of Texas with a magnifying glass over the southern border counties and Brooks Co highlighted in Red

In just a few short days the UIndy team will be heading back to South Texas to help with the humanitarian efforts in Falfurrias and at Texas State University. The Archaeology and Forensics Laboratory (AFL) is abuzz with activity. The beginning of the summer has been especially busy for us, packed with tons of casework, a conference, and a weeklong recovery out of state. This flurry of activity continues as we get closer and closer to the day we leave. As excited as I am to get to Texas, I’m starting to realize all the prep work that still needs to be done. Oh sure, the supply lists have been made, the plane tickets and hotel accommodations have been taken care of ages ago, but now the packing frenzy begins.

This afternoon we put those supply lists to good use and packed a bag with field supplies and everything that we would need to do skeletal analyses. Our field gear includes measuring tapes, compasses, string, stakes, and a north arrow, among other things. Our skeletal analysis supplies consists mostly of paper forms and reference materials. The most sophisticated pieces of equipment we’re bringing with us this year are a set of sliding and spreading calipers, which are tools that we use to measure bones with. Most notably, we will be carrying with us a box full of animal bones that will be used for teaching purposes, of course. Carrying this box through the airport should be interesting.

For my own personal packing, my top priority is what books I’m going to pack. Already, there is a stack of books next to my empty suitcase on the floor. I know that much of the trip will be spent working hard, so I’ll have to be judicious about the number of books I carry with me. At the top of the stack sits Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, followed by Pride and Prejudice, and The Time Machine by H.G. Wells. Off to the side I have a book of poetry by Elizabeth Bishop, an American poet who did quite a bit of traveling herself. She writes some truly amazing stuff. This one will go directly into my carry-on.

I have never been to Texas before and I’m glad for the opportunity to be able to do so. I’m a New Yorker, born and raised, and until I went to graduate school I had never lived anywhere else. I haven’t really travelled much in the United States. I’ve mostly stuck to the Northeast and Canada with an occasional visit to Florida, where my brother lives. Everything I know about Texas comes from books, TV, and the three Texans that currently inhabit the AFL. I’ve been told that Texas is extremely hot and humid, that the people there are the nicest you’ll ever meet, that the tacos are amazing, and that, yes, everything is bigger in Texas. I’m excited to immerse myself in all things Texas and am lucky to have two native Texans, Dr. Krista Latham and Ryan Strand, to show me the ropes.

Amanda

Update: STHRC Internship

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I have a quick and exciting update for our readers (and on that note, always a sincere “Thank you!!” to all of our readers) since my last post from past summer. At the end of this summer, I will be moving back to Texas to start an internship at the South Texas Human Rights Center.  This is a transition that I’ve been hoping for, and I absolutely can’t wait to begin working with the center.South Texas Human Rights Center logo with a simple all black eye and an animated green plant in the center

As graduate students, we fine-tune our skills within a confined specialty. We learn everything there is to know about how bones work in our bodies, what they look like when altered (broken, burned, buried for a long time, etc.) and how we can apply this knowledge to assist law enforcement. We are trained as scientists, and so we learn how to form and test hypotheses and how to prevent any source of bias from affecting our interpretation of the results.  We learn how to put emotion aside so that it doesn’t distort our vision.

Most importantly, we learn that a holistic approach is imperative to understanding what we see, and so that is what I am excited to expand upon by taking this internship. I likely won’t see too many bones. Instead, I’ll be looking at personal artifacts, organizing missing persons data, filling water stations, listening to distress calls, and ultimately trying to put any pieces together that might help locate the remains of a missing loved one. I’ll be working alongside professions that I’ve never worked with before. I’m excited to see these different perspectives and hopefully I will be able to use my knowledge to contribute in new ways that are revealed by these new perspectives.

An additional note that I should include is that I will be replacing Hailey Duecker, who recently received her Master’s degree from Texas State University and is moving to the University of Florida to begin her Ph.D. work. She has been at the Center since December 2014. Hailey and I were undergrads together at Texas State University and were some of the first undergraduate volunteers at the Forensic Anthropology Research Facility. I am elated and honored to be picking up her work; her work ethic is second to none and I am eager to try and match it. It’s funny how life works sometimes: even after we chose to study at different institutions for graduate school, somehow we ended up right back together to assist with this crisis.

We are about to head back to Texas for another season of human rights work. With my upcoming internship in mind, I am going to constantly think about how I might be able to help when I start my internship. My eyes will be more open than ever, looking for those opportunities that I might have not seen before. More updates will follow with what we find!

Ryan