This weekend, the People of La Junta for Preservation will host a ceremony honoring the reburial of seven sets of human remains that were removed by archaeologists and held in institutional storage for nearly 20 years. The event is being co-sponsored by the Big Bend Conservation Alliance and will be held at El Cementerio del Barrio de los Lipanes in Presidio on Saturday, November 1 at 9 a.m.
Five of the seven sets of remains were accidentally unearthed by a public works crew in Presidio in 2006. The discovery of the burials—dated between 1,200 and 1,400 A.D.—prompted intervention by the Center for Big Bend Studies at what is referred to as the Millington Site, which has gradually rewritten non-Natives’ understanding of the complexity of society and culture at La Junta de los Ríos before the age of Spanish colonization.
Despite the local celebrity status of the “Millington Five,” they remained in storage at the Center for Big Bend Studies until researchers could figure out what to do with them. Last year, Sul Ross State University and a local descendant, Xoxi Nayapiltzin, worked together to establish a DNA match and create a plan to return these elders to their native La Junta.
That plan, years in the works, will finally be realized on Saturday morning. “This reburial is a profound act of love and responsibility,” Melanie Hernandez, executive director of the People of La Junta for Preservation, wrote in a press release. “For too long, the remains of our people were removed and studied without consent. By bringing them back to Presidio, we honor their lives, restore their dignity, and heal an open wound in our community.”
Before the public ceremony, descendants will gather to weave funerary mats from native local grasses. The remains will be nestled between the mats and put into cedar boxes, which attendees will then help place in the ground. Everyone will then be called to place centinelas, or sentinel stones, to mark the reburials within the cemetery.
Christina Hernandez, leader of the Big Bend Conservation Alliance and descendant of the Aguilar family interred at the Barrio de los Lipanes cemetery, said that everyone was welcome to the public ceremony, whether they have local Indigenous roots or not. She explained that some of the traditions that guests will observe are a hybrid of old and new. “We have been getting with our elders and reclaiming some practices,” she explained.
After the reburial, everyone is invited to the American Legion for coffee and pastries. The Legion is located at 905 O’Reilly Street in Presidio.
For more information, visit bigbendconservationalliance.org.