Shinnecock Nation Member, Working To Save Ancestral Graves, Needs Help

SOUTHAMPTON, NY — A member of the Shinnecock Nation, who has worked tirelessly to save ancestral graves in areas threatened by development, has made an appeal for help.

A GoFundMe page, "Support Shane Weeks Of Graves Protection Society" has been created to help him continue his work.

"The Graves Protection Warrior Society is an intertribal coalition of members from indigenous communities across Long Island," he wrote. "Our goal over the last six years has been to help protect known and unmarked burial sites and facilitate the repatriations of our ancestors' remains, funerary objects and other sacred items. We are asking for your help today to allow this work to be continued."

Weeks, a member of the Shinnecock Nation, and co-chairman of the Graves Protection Warrior Society, "brings an invaluable skillset that helps us achieve our goal," others in the group wrote.

"Shane has worked on this mission as a full-time occupation. He works diligently to create networking opportunities for repatriations and to educate the larger community on our mission," members of the group wrote. "His position is currently unpaid but the work that he is helping to facilitate must still carry on. We are asking our friends, neighbors, and anyone who wants to contribute to this cause, to help fund Shane's position so that he may continue this work full-time."

The funds will go directly to Weeks as compensation for his continued work, members of the Graves Protection Warrior Society wrote.

To learn more about Weeks and his work in the community, click here.

To donate to the GoFundMe, click here.

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