Word: tunica
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Charrier's early "scavenger hunts were sparked by a general interest in early Louisiana history. Why the Tunica settlement? "I guess because I knew it existed," he says simply...
...Harvard's offer for the collection, but did agree to lease the artifacts to the University while he continued negotiations with Harvard. The talks became complicated when Harvard lawyers asked Charrier for a legal document from the owner of the land he had excavated renouncing any claim to the Tunica collection. First Charrier refused to disclose the excavation site, claiming the landowner did not want it known he had allowed Charrier to open Indian graves. Later he admitted he had no such document...
...make matters worse, the land turned out to be jointly owned by six heirs that had divided into two quarreling camps. The heirs could barely agree to let Brain survey their land, let alone decide what to do with the Tunica collection...
...came has still not been decided and, because of the legal complications, the treasure has never been displayed publicly. The defendants are the longer the heirs, but the state Archeological Survey and Antiquities commission which subsequently bought the land. The state has been joined in its case by the Tunica Biloxi Indian tribe, the modern descendents of the Tunica. If the state Wins the case it has agreed to turn the relics over to the Tunica-Biloxi...
...addition to the main lawsuit. Charrier has sued Harvard for return of the relies, which the University had decided to keep until the legal owner was decided. Harvard countersued, and the collection was recently transferred to the Louisiana State Museum because of renovations at the Peabody. The Tunica-Biloxi have also filed a federal suit asserting that they own the relics by right of their ancestry. All these claims have been set aside until the original suit is settled. The original suit itself has become so complicated that the state district court could not handle it and Judge D. Lenton...