Montana Code Annotated 2023

TITLE 22. LIBRARIES, ARTS, AND ANTIQUITIES

CHAPTER 3. ANTIQUITIES

Part 8. Human Skeletal Remains and Burial Site Protection

Definitions

22-3-803. Definitions. As used in this part, the following definitions apply:

(1) "Board" means the burial preservation board established in 22-3-804.

(2) "Burial material" means any item found at the burial site or with the human skeletal remains and directly associated with the burial or burial site.

(3) "Burial site" means, except for cemeteries and graveyards protected under existing state law, any natural or prepared physical location, whether originally below, on, or above the surface of the earth, into which human remains were intentionally deposited as a part of the death rites or ceremonies of a culture.

(4) "Human skeletal remains" means any part of the human body in any state of decomposition taken from a burial site.

(5) "Marked, unmarked, unrecorded, registered, or unregistered grave or burial ground" means any place, except a cemetery or graveyard protected under existing state law, where human skeletal remains are or have been interred.

(6) "Scientifically justifiable" means that the human skeletal remains or burial material has a potential to address specific research questions in the science of anthropology, history, or biology.

(7) "Tribal group" means an Indian tribe recognized by the United States secretary of the interior or recognized as a tribe by other Indian nations.

History: En. Sec. 3, Ch. 748, L. 1991.