I want my body and all of my worldly goods put onto a longship, the whole thing set alight, and shoved off to sea. I want my wife standing on top of the pile, wailing and lamenting my loss. For some reason she doesn't agree with this.

Years back I visited the exhibit at Dickson Mounds State Park in Illinois, back when the excavated burial mound was still open for viewing (it's closed now). I have never seen any thing treated with such respect and, yes, reverence, as that. The visitors, even the babies, became hushed and still in the presence of this former inhabitants of the Illinios River Valley. There was no sign saying, "Quiet!" It was a spontaneous thing, something that you simply did without thinking.

Abuses have happened in the past. I suggest the Aleut Museum in Kodiak could serve as a model for the future.