The U.S. government is negotiating with The Nez Perce Tribe and two other Native American tribes to return the 500-year-old skeletons of a young adult and child found at a southwestern Idaho site that authorities first thought was a more recent crime scene.
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management says the Nez Perce, Shoshone-Bannock, and Shoshone-Paiute Tribes have each made formal claims for the bones. The federal agency is using a process spelled out in the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act and expects a decision this spring.
Carbon dating found the young adult and child or teen lived sometime during the 1400s to 1600s.
Anthropologists say they’ll lose a unique research opportunity to learn about how the two lived and died so long ago. (AP)
