Treasure, you are right about mimbres often being associated with burials. However you should be made aware of the fact that a large majority of items in museums are. Having taken archaeology course, I'm sure you're aware that many museums are often the direct results of legal excavations in burials or mound groups? There is a HUGE list (Spiro, Cahokia, Dickson, Parkin, Etowah, Grave Creek, etc, etc) of mound sites with museums due to the excavations. There have been some museums established directly over the excavated burial mounds themselves, like Kolomoki. Then there are other museums who are focused primarily around a cultural group instead of site like (Deming Luna Mimbres Museum in NM).
Don't get me wrong, I'm not condoning anyone digging in cemetaries or graves. Any excavations should be left up to qualified individuals and in professional environments. Studying relics and people (yes, this included bones) of the past is how we learn. You're right about the stigma involved with the study of remains nowadays, but think of how important some have been. Just think of the Kennewick man debacle. The Kennewick man is one of the most important finds in recent years and there are people that would love nothing better than to see him completely shoved under the rug.
I appreciate your comments TT :-) I'll try to get more photos up soon. The images are just some I took offhand, the original site to the museum is
http://www.museumofnativeamericanartifacts.org. The show was a blast! They have them all over the country. If you check, I'm sure there are some even near you. The collinsville, Illinois show is this weekend, but I wasn't able to attend. I think the next big one will be the AACA expo in Ky. Talk to you later!
