Shortly after the discovery, the Army Corps of Engineers, on whose land the skeleton was found, indicated it planned to turn over the remains to Indian tribes for reburial without further study. Then, eight prominent scientists sued to gain access to the remains for archaeological research. In May, Jelderks asked attorneys for the federal government and the scientists to reach an agreement on a facility to house the remains. The Battelle facility in Richland, where they have been housed, is too cramped to inventory the bones, the first of a series of tests to help determine their origins. In attempting to reach that agreement, both sides exchanged a volley of paperwork with the court late last month.
Plaintiffs are neither stupid nor uncooperative.
In contrast to such sharply worded paperwork, however, scientists reached for comment yesterday said the Burke would be a suitable place to house the remains. Our whole thing has been, from day one, to get this thing studied. I'm not really upset one way or other - that's my personal position. We're a long ways from where we began . . . Doug Owsley, head of physical anthropology at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History, said he had talked to Hutterer and thinks the Burke arrangement will work out.