Stuart tells Wendy and Jack that The Overlook is built on 'Indian' burial grounds, and that many were repelled (or killed, using the hotel's doublespeak - eg. Grady 'corrected' his family) during the making of the hotel. This is an important acknowledgement that the visual story of the Europeans and indigenous americans we see in the hotel decor is confirmed in the dialogue.

As David Cook argues in American Horror: The Shining (Literature/Film Quarterly, 12.1, 1984:2-4), "The Shining is less about ghosts and demonic possession than it is about the murderous system of economic exploitation which has sustained this country since, like the Overlook Hotel, it was built upon an Indian burial ground that stretched quite literally from 'sea to shining sea'. This is a secret that most Americans choose to overlook; the true horror of the shining is the horror of living in a society which is predicated upon murder and must constantly deny the fact to itself."