Native American bones to be returned to a tribe

BOISE, Idaho – Human bones excavated from a 4,000-year-old burial site in western Wyoming will be returned to a Native American tribe to be determined.

The National Park Service this week said the fragmentary human remains of an 8- to 9-year-old child and an adult will be returned to a tribe in Wyoming, South Dakota, Montana or Idaho following consultations.

The bones were removed from a site near the U.S. Forest Service’s Dead Indian Campground in the Shoshone National Forest in 1969 during an archaeological excavation.

They’re now being returned to a tribe under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act.

The National Park Service says the bones have been identified as Native American but cannot be reasonably traced to any present-day tribe.

The agency says the burial site is the aboriginal land of the Crow Tribe of Montana.