Brickbat: Land Acknowledgement

A homeowner in British Columbia, Canada, who found what might be Indigenous human remains on their land, now faces huge legal, archaeological, and monitoring costs—well over $100,000 ($73,000 U.S.) and counting. Under Canadian provincial law, private landowners must pay to protect and investigate heritage sites with no government help or compensation. The Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc nation is not only claiming the property as a heritage site but also a surrounding buffer zone that affects other properties. Meanwhile, it isn’t even clear the remains are Indigenous: One archaeological firm said the bones could have been brought to the site by a previous owner as part of a sand fill deposit.