Conclusion: The Future of the United States 231characterization, under the Doctrine of Discovery, of purportedly
vacant lands as terra nullis.1 9 This is a kind of no-fault history. From
the theory of a liberated future of no borders and nations, of a vague
commons for all, the theorists obliterate the present and presence
of Indigenous nations struggling for their liberation from states of
colonialism. Thereby, Indigenous rhetoric and programs for decolo
nization, nationhood, and sovereignty are, according to this project,
rendered invalid and futile. 3° From the Indigenous perspective, as
Jodi Byrd writes, "any notion of the commons that speaks for and
as indigenous as it advocates transforming indigenous governance or
incorporating indigenous peoples into a multitude that might then
reside on those lands forcibly taken from indigenous peoples does
nothing to disrupt the genocidal and colonialist intent of the initial
and now repeated historical process."31
BODY PARTS
Another aspect of the demand for US public dominion appears
under the guise of science. Despite the passage in 1990 of the Na
tive American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA),
some researchers under the cloak of science have fought toot� and
nail not to release the remains and burial offerings of some two mil
lion Indigenous people held in storage, much of it uncataloged, in
the Smithsonian Institution and other museums and by universities,
state historical societies, National Park Service offices, warehouses,
and curio shops. Until the r99os, archaeologists and physical an
thropologists claimed to need the remains-which they labeled "re
sources" or "data," but rarely as "human remains"-for "scientific"
experimentation, but most were randomly stored in boxes. 3^2
In doing so, they also challenge the definition of "Native Ameri
can" and the claimants' right to sovereignty. They even accuse Na
tive Americans of being anti-science for seeking to repatriate the
remains of their relatives. 33 However, since anthropologist Franz
Boas in r9rr discredited the theories of racial superiority and in
feriority upon which such research was premised, little actual ex
amination of the Indigenous body parts has taken place. When