These Bones Are Read: The Science and Politics of Ancient Native America

At approximately 9,500 years old, two sets of human remains from La Jolla, California (W-12), known as the University House Burials due to the physical location of their discovery on property owned by the University of California, San Diego, are some of the oldest in the United States. These burials are central to a repatriation controversy between the University of California, San Diego, and the Kumeyaay Cultural Repatriation Committee, which represents 12 federally recognized Kumeyaay/Diegueno tribal governments in San Diego County, California. The story of the La Jolla burials is a politically complicated one involving the Kumeyaay Indian Tribe's efforts to claim and repatriate the La Jolla remains, the University of California, San Diego's property issues and scientific interests, the local community's concerns, federal law, and the question of the population origins of the La Jolla remains. This final point has become central to determining who should ultimately have control over the final disposition of the burials, a point that has been, and will be, at the heart of many repatriation disputes. This article focuses on the science of determining the origins of all remains of great antiquity, including the La Jolla burials themselves. (Contains 64 notes.)