Inside a sealed tank in a Suitland, Md., warehouse rests a brain that, for the past 83 years, has refused to die. The lump of preserved tissue doesn’t pulsate or glow like the gory centerpiece of some late-night monster movie. Rather, it reaches out and grabs people because it’s infused with the symbolic power of a real-life horror story—the near-destruction of several Native American tribes by white California settlers in the late 1800s.
Log in
Subscribers, enter your e-mail address for full access to the Science News archives and digital editions.