IN OCTOBER, the US Division of Homeland Safety made an pressing announcement. New limitations and roads have been wanted alongside the Texas-Mexico border – however development was impeded by federally mandated surveys and permits. These shield the surroundings and archaeological websites. Additionally they take time to finish. To hurry development, the Biden administration waived compliance with 26 federal legal guidelines, eight of which regulate archaeological and/or sacred Indigenous websites.

In 1888, it was looters, not governments, who have been barrelling by means of the previous. Anthropologists Alice Fletcher and Matilda Stevenson knew the looters have been successful. They proposed laws to protect US archaeological websites on…