2021 Delaware Code
Title 7 - Conservation
Chapter 54. Unmarked Human Burials and Human Skeletal Remains
§ 5407. Consultation, analysis, and disposition.

(a) The Director shall notify the Committee of all skeletal remains determined to be Native American within 5 days of learning of the discovery of human burials or skeletal remains pursuant to § 5404 of this title. The Director shall provide the Committee with a written plan for the proposed treatment and ultimate disposition of the skeletal remains within 60 days of making the notification.

(b) For all non-Native American burials or skeletal remains, the director shall begin forming the Committee within 5 days of learning of the discovery pursuant to § 5404 of this title. The Director shall publish notice of all discoveries of human skeletal remains other than Native American on the Division's website, and at least once per week for 2 successive weeks in a newspaper of general circulation in the county where the burials or skeletal remains were situated, in an effort to determine the identity or lineal descendants or both of the deceased. Lineal descendants shall have 30 days after the last published notice to notify the Director of their ancestry or proven kinship to the skeletal remains. Within 60 days of the end of the notification period the Director shall convene the Committee to develop a written plan for treatment and disposition of human skeletal remains. Treatment and ultimate disposition of the skeletal remains shall be subject to the written permission of the lineal descendants or shall be determined by the Director if no lineal descendant is identified.

(c) All skeletal analysis conducted pursuant to this chapter shall be undertaken only by a skeletal analyst.

(d) Any previously excavated skeletal remains of Native Americans of the State which are on display or remain uncovered as of June 5, 1987, shall be reinterred within 1 year. Treatment and disposition of all Native American remains discovered after enactment shall be determined by the Committee or, if direct descent can be determined, by a lineal descendant. In any event, Native American skeletal remains discovered after enactment shall be reinterred within 90 days unless an extension or other disposition is granted by the Committee.

(e) All reasonable efforts shall be made to maintain burials and skeletal remains in situ if that is the consensus of the Committee. Any person which is responsible, either directly or indirectly, for the unearthing of human remains deemed to be under the jurisdiction of the Division of Historical and Cultural Affairs shall be responsible for the cost of research to determine the identity, delineation of the burial ground, excavation, and reinternment, and providing a suitable marker for those remains.