Tribal dispute resumes after human bones found among remains from Mendocino County ranch

Among the artifacts and animal remains dug up despite tribal opposition three decades ago on a sprawling communal ranch in Mendocino County, there turned out to be human bones - a recent discovery significant for Pomo tribal members now seeking return of the remains and greater control over cultural sites on private land.

The identification of five human hand and foot bones, made last month by Sonoma State University's Anthropological Studies Center, is the latest twist in a longstanding debate over archaeological digs conducted in the 1980s on the Greenfield Ranch, a 5,200-acre community created by back-to-the-landers in the 1970s.

Pomo tribal leaders objected to the digs at the time and said the confirmation that human remains were among the exhumed items justified their opposition to such projects, whether for educational study or development.

“We don't want (Native American cultural sites) to be disturbed,” said Priscilla Hunter, a member of the Coyote Valley band of Pomo Indians who was tribal administrator at the time and opposed the digs. Now with the tribe's historic preservation office, Hunter said “bad medicine” was unleashed by the digs.

Greenfield Ranch residents, who pride themselves as being culturally and environmentally sensitive, were appalled to learn human bones had been kept for years in boxes, most recently at Greenfield's communal ranch house prior to being sent last year to Sonoma State to be digitally recataloged and where they remain.

It “has been a shock to our community and we want to resolve this situation as quickly as possible,” the ranch association said in an Oct. 19 written statement explaining the new information and the history of the excavations.

The excavations

The digs, which occurred on the ranch from 1985 to 1987, were initiated by a Greenfield resident who was studying archaeology and were overseen by a San Jose State University archaeology professor. The Greenfield resident, Mark Gary, later became a state archaeologist. He was still studying the artifacts, of which there were some 24,000 cataloged items, when he died in 2001. The boxes of artifacts and remains were transferred to the Greenfield ranch house following his death.

The human bones were identified after Greenfield ranch members, surprised by the number of bones in the inventory, asked anthropology center officials to examine them more closely.

The first of Gary's Greenfield excavations was conducted after looting was discovered at a cultural site on privately owned property, according to the ranch association. A second was the result of a construction project, also on private property. The third, conducted in 1987 and the source of the bones, was launched for research purposes on communally owned land, according to the association. It was a subject of Gary's master's thesis. All three projects had the permission of the Mendocino County Archaeological Commission, according to the ranch association.

The bones found

A 1993 letter from the ranch association, written to assuage Hunter's concerns, assured her there were no human remains or evidence of burials at the 1987 site. It's unclear from the letter who made that determination, or how. But it's common for people to confuse the bones from bear paws with human feet and hands - which are remarkably similar - according to news reports and officials at the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office.

No tests have been conducted, but the Sonoma State faunal expert who identified the bones believes they are those of an indigenous person, or persons, based on the fact they were found in a archaeological site, one whose artifacts date back 5,000 years, said Linda Gray, a member of Greenfield's lithics, or stone tools, committee.

Hunter and some Yuki descendants from the Round Valley Indian Tribes also want DNA tests carried out on the remains in hopes of confirming they are Native American and more accurately determining the tribe to which they belong. Hunter, who said she normally opposes DNA testing on Indian remains, noted they were retrieved from shallow ground and could belong to a nonnative settler.

By law, the bones - unless proven to be non-native - will be returned to a local tribe. The state's Native American Heritage Commission will identify the “most likely descendants” of the deceased and hand over the bones to that tribe for reburial.

The Mendocino County Sheriff's Office may decide to first have the bones examined by the Chico State University anthropology lab to get a better idea of their age and rule out the possibility of a more recent death, said Lt. Shannon Barney.

Officials at Sonoma State's anthropological center declined to discuss their findings or the original excavation.

Cataloging of the bones and artifacts - most of them chert and obsidian flakes - was completed in September.

The collection also included projectile points, scrapers, knives and ground stone artifacts, according to a 1993 letter to Hunter.

Barney, a Round Valley tribal member, said Native American skeletal remains are found on average once a year in the county. They're often unearthed by construction and natural erosion.

“The entire county's an archaeological site,” said Barney. Individual sites are kept secret in an effort to reduce looting.

This was the second report of likely Native American remains made to the Sheriff's Office in just two weeks, Barney said. The other bones were recently found near the coast. In that case, they clearly were part of an ancient cultural site and were quickly reburied where they were found, Barney said. He could not be more specific because of laws protecting the locations of cultural sites. For that reason, it's rare for the public to find out when artifacts or remains are unearthed.

A stop to the digs

Like Hunter, many tribal members would like to see a stop to excavations of cultural sites. Some have engaged in high-profile clashes with archaeologists in search of scientific and historical information. They include the two-decade battle over ownership of Kennewick Man, a 9,000-year-old skeleton found on the banks of the Columbia River in Washington state in 1996. In Mendocino County, several tribes have sued and continue to negotiate with Caltrans over Native American artifacts unearthed during construction of the Willits Bypass on Highway 101.

In 2014, leaders of the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria decided to rebury without study a large trove of ancient Coast Miwok remains and artifacts unearthed during a construction project in Marin County. The move rankled archaeologists, who said they missed a chance to examine a burial ground dating back 4,500 years.

Greg Sarris, tribal chairman of the Graton Rancheria, dismissed that pushback at the time as arrogant “colonial” thinking.

“We know our own history,” Sarris said.

Three decades ago, Hunter objected before the digging began on the Greenfield ranch excavations. She later reiterated her concerns in letters.

“We do not approve of the removal of native American cultural objects from their former locations. They were placed here by our ancestors and we feel that they should not be disturbed,” she wrote in a 1992 letter to the Greenfield Ranch Association. She asked that the association turn over the unearthed artifacts - some of which had been displayed in a Ukiah museum - to her tribe.

At that time, the ranch association discussed Hunter's request and sought input from other local tribes.

“We look forward to further discussions and mutual understandings if you or others from Coyote Valley would like to meet with us, please let us know,” the association said in its response to Hunter's request.

The Greenfield Ranch Association board appointed an Artifacts Liaison Committee which wrote letters to 10 area tribes as well as to Hunter. But no one responded, and the issue languished for two decades, according to the Greenfield Ranch Association.

It resurfaced in 2014 and was brought to the ranch association by both Greenfield community members and Hunter. The ranch board held meetings and found strong support within the community to update the collection's catalog and then hand it over to a tribe, even though the artifacts legally were private property.

Ranch members would like to see the remains buried and the artifacts turned over to an appropriate tribe as soon as possible, bringing closure to the tangled tale, member Scott Love said.

“It's been quite a saga,” he said.

You can reach Staff Writer Glenda Anderson at 707-462-6473 or glenda.anderson@pressdemocrat.com