What would you think if you're grandmother was dug up with a backhoe and tossed in a dump truck? Probably not very good and I bet you wouldn't sit there and be quiet about it. What about those who have no family to voice a protest? It's happening in Albany right now as hundreds of graves are being backhoed to make room for a medical research facility. Seems ironic doesn't it?

The Charitable Leadership Foundation is currently removing a portion of the 19th century Albany County Almshouse cemetery site located along New Scotland Avenue. Last month, the New York Archaeological Council (NYAC) learned that the developer was planning to remove several graves (including children) with a backhoe. They wrote to Mayor Jennings and was informed that work would not occur until a plan for sensitive treatment of the burials was arranged. Last Friday, I watched as a backhoe stood on top of a grave while working. So much for a "sensitive" plan.

NYAC learned that excavation by backhoe and by "grave diggers," with no formal archaeological mitigation, would continue via a 'Memo of Understanding' agreed to on an adjacent excavation and project by a different developer. According to Louise Basa, President of New York State Archaeological Association, "this memo is based on 19th century legal procedures. Since the Vietnam War, our sensitivity to those "MIA's" and victims of tragedy has changed dramatically. The ability of archaeological forensic methods to identify individuals, and more importantly, study medical conditions and diseases, has outstripped these old fashioned laws and has brought us a renewed dignity for people of all socioeconomic conditions. This memorandum just does not provide this sensitivity."

The memo was signed by the developer and Albany's City Archeologist Mike Warner. On Friday, as the site was closed down, several of the archaeologists and interested citizens held a rally at the site in protest.

In 1984, I suggested to the city that they create an office of natural and historic resources that would create a database of important buried cultural resources so that preplanning could be a part of the city's development strategy. The Alms House and cemetery site have been known for years. This is not something archaeologists stumbled on. Burials from another part of this site were excavated over a year ago by archaeologists on an adjacent development. Instead of dealing with the site as a whole, it's being piecemealed out one acre at a time. This is another example of a 'hell with our history' attitude that permeates throughout the political layer of the Capital District.

The NYS Museum has excavated nearly 800 burials and it's estimated that perhaps 200 or more still exist. I won't bore you with the scientific importance of conducting proper archeological procedures. You can simply react to the human and ethical questions.

This story is not your typical "big bad developer" vs preservationists. The Charitable Leadership Foundation is a good organization and they have spent over a million dollars already on the excavation of the 800 excavated burials. They have postponed their groundbreaking while the dig was underway. The project they are proposing, a $60 million biomedical research facility, is certainly a noble one. However, now a "Funeral Director" will oversee the backhoe operation.

The bad guy here is the city of Albany and the lack of concern over the treatment of their cultural resources. Every year it seems a developer stumbles on a important archeological find and then last minute archaeology is rushed in to none completion. This grave site is the resting place for hundreds of poor and destitute people who in earlier times didn't have a chance. But even poor people have names and lives that had meaning to someone. Some were veterans of the Civil War. Others may have contributed in other ways, but the proper archeological removal is a chance to learn about how the poor lived in Albany during the 19th and early 20th centuries. So far they have found an average life span of about 50 years. One was buried with a dog and cat. Another with a tie still attached to the skeleton. Research on early diseases can also be learned; Many had broken bones for example.

Yes, these people were poor, but I believe if they could speak they would want archaeologists to continue to study their remains so that we all can learn more about their plight and in some small way use this knowledge to prevent others from suffering the same fate. These people are not nameless. One archaeologist found a listing of names of those buried from 1880-1926 and posted them on the Poorhouse Story Web site (www.poorhousestory.com/NY_ALBANY_BurialList.htm). Take a look. You may have a relative there!