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[source: NativeNews; Wed, 16 Feb 2000 16:32:17]

Letter ends Indian-remains lawsuit
BY JOE DUGGAN Lincoln Journal Star
http://www.journalstar.com/stories/loc/sto3

A former University of Nebraska-Lincoln graduate student Monday stood behind
allegations of wrongdoing against his former instructor in handling American
Indian remains and burial artifacts at the university.

As part of a lawsuit Stanley M. Parks, now a UNL research archaeologist,
wrote a clarification letter last October to "set the record straight" about
news reports on the handling of human remains at UNL.

The letter -- just recently made public -- was addressed to Karl J. Reinhard,
an associate anthropology professor who once worked with Parks. It was
written to settle Reinhard's defamation lawsuit against Parks, which was
dismissed in October 1999 from Lancaster County District Court .

"This is not a retraction of anything," Parks said Monday. "I still stand
behind everything I've said." Contacted at his office Monday afternoon,
Reinhard declined comment on the Parks letter. His attorney Thom Cope of
Lincoln, however, said the letter represented another step toward vindicating
his client.

"Dr. Reinhard hasn't done anything wrong, but he's been vilified by everybody
but his grandmother up and down the highways and byways of Nebraska," Cope
said Monday evening.

But does the Parks letter recant allegations that prompted the lawsuit in the
first place?

According to Parks, it does not.

Reinhard's lawsuit listed several published accusations made by Parks in July
1998. They primarily involved a period in 1989 and 1990 when the two prepared
an inventory of Omaha Indian skeletons and burial artifacts. The inventories
were written to comply with a federal law requiring the return of Indian
remains to their descendent tribes.

Parks alleged that Reinhard ordered him to change inventories to hide some
remains from the Omaha Tribe of Nebraska. In addition, Parks said Reinhard
threatened Parks' job if he didn't comply with the order. Finally, the former
graduate student alleged he once saw Reinhard place a hat on the skull of a
small child and work the jaws as if it were talking.

None of those allegations was mentioned in the Parks letter.

"I'm not retracting anything," Parks said. "(The letter) doesn't clear him of
anything." Instead, the letter addresses "distortions" in some news stories
about the controversy:

Parks wrote a 1998 memorandum detailing allegations against Reinhard. In his
letter, Parks said the memo was intended to be kept within the Anthropology
Department and he was "very sorry" it was distributed and eventually reported
on in news stories. The letter, which maintains information in the memo is
true, stated Parks wasn't the person who distributed it.

In May 1999, death-row inmate Roger Bjorklund sought a new trial claiming
that Reinhard, while performing forensic work, worked on skeletal remains of
murder victim Candi Harms at Bessey Hall. Court records cited Parks, among
others, as a source of information about the Harms case.

In his letter, Parks said he has "no personal knowledge one way or another"
if Reinhard worked with the remains on campus. In an interview, Parks said a
private investigator for Bjorklund incorrectly attributed information to him
in court records.

Reinhard, forensic colleagues and prosecutors denied the allegations in
Bjorklund's motion. Bjorklund later dropped the motion for a new trial,
prosecutors said, because he could produce no evidence to support the claims
against Reinhard.

Asked whether the Journal Star ever misconstrued information from Parks about
the bones controversy, Parks said, "I don't really remember any inaccuracies
there." The carefully worded, three-page letter was written to bring an end
to the lawsuit. Parks said he saw nothing to gain for him or the Anthropology
Department by going to trial. Parks' attorney, Alan Peterson, said there was
no monetary settlement.

Cope, Reinhard's attorney, said his client didn't need a letter from Parks to
restore his professional reputation. That was done through investigations by
the Nebraska State Patrol and university-hired attorney Robert Grimit.

While details of the patrol investigation have never been made public,
Grimit's investigation did refer to Parks' allegations about altering human
remains inventories. The report called the charge "unfounded." Regarding
allegations that Reinhard mishandled forensic investigations, Grimit
concluded they "could be explained only by the "rumor mill' or by a
deliberate attempt to discredit Reinhard."

---
Joe Duggan can be reached at jduggan@journalstar.com or 473-7239.

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