It was an appropriate act of respect on Friday that the North Dakota Historical Society transferred the rights to a 5-acre plot in Fort Yates to the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, with the United States as the trustee.

The site is one of the two locations where the remains of Sitting Bull, a Hunkpapa Lakota holy man, may be buried. No one really knows.

Tatanka Iyotaka's own people should be guardians of the Fort Yates site, as they were until 1956.

People have differing views on how much reverence to show toward a place, particularly a grave site. There are places that reach out to the human spirit. Bear Butte, in South Dakota, to cite a prime example, is not itself an object of worship so much as it's a venue of spiritual uplift, as many people would find in a cathedral.

That Sitting Bull's remains perhaps were moved in 1953 matters, in a sense. Then again, probably not. Graves should be safe from tampering. Whatever happened more than 50 years ago, it's not the presence of physical remains in the ground at Fort Yates or near Mobridge, S.D., that invokes the memory of a great man.

It's admirable that the tribe wants to maintain the Fort Yates site in a condition indicating profound respect, and that perhaps the spot could be enhanced in some way while being preserved as a historic site. That's for the tribe to decide. Plans are being formulated.

Also it's commendable that two individuals are putting themselves out to improve the other possible grave site, the one near Mobridge. It also should be kept in a condition that honors a connection with Sitting Bull. Whether or not there should be a visitor's center of some sort on the 40-acre site is debatable. But what shouldn't even need to be considered is whether the site should become a tourist trap. The owners' respect for the Lakota spiritual leader, indicated by the fact they've committed money and work to a site they want to represent the memory of Sitting Bull, is enough to indicate they wouldn't come up with anything that's insensitive or downright tacky.

Alas, other sites with associations to famous personages have not been so fortunate in how their developers have desecrated them. Short of establishing an Office of Good Taste with law enforcement powers, there's little that can be done about what's built on private property.

But the memory of Sitting Bull and his spiritual leadership of his people should set the tone for how sites represent him.

The Standing Rock Sioux are in the best position to interpret him to people from all over the world who have a lively interest in a towering historical figure, even 116 years after he was killed so tragically.