IN OCTOBER, the US Division of Homeland Safety made an pressing announcement. New obstacles and roads had been wanted alongside the Texas-Mexico border – however development was impeded by federally mandated surveys and permits. These shield the atmosphere 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 had been barrelling via the previous. Anthropologists Alice Fletcher and Matilda Stevenson knew the looters had been profitable. They proposed laws to protect US archaeological websites on…