Why?

The Commonwealth ‘Owns Everything They Find’

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts asserts that they own any artifacts they discover – even on private property. Why?

Practically, this means that they never have to disclose their discoveries to the public. And that’s how it works today. Rare Indigenous sites just silently disappear.

It is illegal for you to access the Commonwealth’s archaeological site reports, even though these efforts are entirely taxpayer funded. A Freedom of Information request won’t even get you a redacted version. They claim that this is to prevent looting – a small problem according to archeologists and Indigenous experts.

Thirty years of actions indicate that the Massachusetts Historical Commission makes these Indigenous sites disappear so that they don’t block Commonwealth projects, and most importantly, the associated federal funding.

If these sites do exist, they are protected by strong federal preservation laws like the National Historic Protection Act.

Serious conflicts of interest abound. When the Massachusetts Department of Transportation discovers an Indigenous site in the way of project work, it is legally MassDOT’s OWN responsibility to interpret the magnitude and significance of the discovery for the state, Indigenous people, and the public.

Unsurprisingly, it turns out that most discoveries have “no significant research value” according to MassDOT. And when they absolutely can’t avoid it, they pass it off to the Massachusetts Historical Commission.

MHC is the problem solver when federal funds need to be accessed and there is an Indigenous site in the way.

The Massachusetts Historical Commission’s Record

The Massachusetts Historical Commission’s ratio of Colonial sites to Indigenous sites placed on the National Register of Historic Places is 300:1, one of the worst in the country.

MHC has been named as having the “most extreme” policy of all 50 U.S. states regarding treatment of Indigenous sites, according to Moore and Weiss in the Ohio Journal of Archaeology, 2016.

The Commonwealth has never appointed an Indigenous person to the 17-person Massachusetts Historical Commission. Think about that for a second. This is the official state agency that oversees preservation of Indigenous sites.

You will not find a single picture of anything remotely Indigenous browsing through the most recent Massachusetts Historic Preservation Plan 2018-2022.

The Massachusetts Historical Commission only exists because the Commonwealth can not receive federal funds without having it, in order to “comply” with federal law by certifying that historic assets are properly protected.

But this entire federal certification process is run by the state itself – which is our MHC. What could go wrong with billions of federal dollars at stake over the existence of Indigenous sites?

For this reason the MHC is a highly protected, nearly unreachable organization run by the same Executive Director, appointed by the same Secretary of State, for thirty years now. MHC controls the flow of federal money into the state, per federal law. Of course the powers that run the Commonwealth want full control of it and secrecy in decision making.

MHC makes sure that federal funds destined for the Commonwealth are rarely if ever impeded by the discovery of a federally protected Indigenous site. They clean the site, using friendly archeological consultants who have no choice anyway since the state is by far their largest customer, and the site is gone. This is called “mitigation”.

In the legal world, mitigation of a site (i.e. collecting information) before destroying it during construction work is basically the same as having preserved it, since the scientific value is nearly identical. As some people may not agree and so much money is at stake, the MHC is careful to keep everything highly confidential. MHC claims this secrecy is necessary to protect these sites from looting – just before they are entirely bulldozed by the state.

Perhaps then the public could learn about their local history from MHC archeological reports on Indiginous sites that don’t exist anymore, given there is zero chance of anyone looting those. No.

Regardless, the public usually never hears a whisper.

Each time the MHC falsely certifies that the state has complied with the federal National Historic Protection Act and Section 106 process to receive federal funds that they weren’t actually qualified for – and it’s pretty clear from all the third-party notifications sent to MHC over thirty years – it’s financial fraud.

William Galvin, MA Secretary of State, has been Chair of the MHC for over thirty years. Brona Simon, who he himself appointed as Director of MHC some thirty years ago, runs it for him.

The collateral damage of this financial fraud is the unlawful destruction of ancient Indigenous sites without anyone the wiser.

There is zero public or tribal transparency into any meeting of substance about Indigenous sites at MHC. Somehow, Massachusetts Open Meeting Law does not apply. Redacted meeting minutes don’t exist. Freedom of Information requests on this topic are ignored.

Thirty years of facts indicate that the Massachusetts Historic Commission is entirely broken. The motive is clear.