Millie, Jim, McKenzie

The year is 2095. The United States has been a province of Canada for about 100 years. It had happened very quickly, and it had been hard at first, but things are quite different now. The Canadians are good to the American people; they provide money, food, and even houses on a regular basis.

Millie, age 10, and Jim, age 12, live in the United States. They have a very good Canadian friend named McKenzie, who is also 12 years old. One day, McKenzie brought two rings and a necklace to school. The items were very intricate and also extremely old. The children were very interested in the relics and asked where they had been found. McKenzie said that his father was an engineer and that his crew was digging a pipeline through the old, abandoned graveyard outside of town. The trench had gone through several graves, and his father had gathered up a few old relics. McKenzie's father said that the right kind of relics were worth money to collectors.

McKenzie wanted to gather and sell enough relics to buy a new bike. He knew that there were a lot of other graves that could be dug up, and he invited Millie and Jim to go with him on Saturday. They could have a picnic. It would be fun! Suddenly, Millie and Jim both had a strange feeling. They remembered that their great- and great-great-grandparents were buried in that old cemetery.

Questions

1. Why did Millie and Jim suddenly feel funny?

2. To whom do the relics really belong?

3. Does it really matter whether the graves are dug up?

4. Is there a difference between McKenzie digging up a grave, and an archaeologist digging up a grave?

5. What if nobody would buy the relics? How could this be accomplished?

6. Should the government make a law against digging up graves? Give reasons.

7. Give your solution to the problem. Be creative and imaginative.

8. Be prepared to give a two-minute summary and/or solution to the problem.

	Copyright © 1996 Society for American Archaeology