Indian Bones Dug Up at Mission Will Be Sent to the Museum of Man

The 200-year-old remains of two American Indians found at a future construction site at Mission San Diego de Alcala will be turned over to the Museum of Man until reburial can be arranged.

Donald Worley, a lawyer for the Catholic Diocese of San Diego, said Thursday the decision was made this week after consulting with Cliff Trafzer, local head of the state Native American Heritage Commission and chairman of the American Indian Studies Department at San Diego State University.

Reburial Plans Uncertain

Worley said archeological excavation at the Mission Valley site, where the diocese will build a meeting hall, will continue and any more bone discoveries will be sent to the Balboa Park museum. He said that after the archeological work is finished, a meeting will be held with church and Indian representatives to determine details for the reburial.

Trafzer, who Worley said will be present at any future meetings, could not be reached for comment Thursday.

The bones were found three weeks ago during a dig undertaken as part of an agreement with the city that gave the diocese permission to build an 8,000-square-foot multipurpose building at California’s oldest mission.

The meeting hall has been a controversial project since the diocese proposed it in 1978 to ease overcrowding at the mission. Protests from historical groups and opposition from the San Diego Historical Site Board delayed the project for several years.

But it was approved last fall under a plan in which the building would be positioned above ground on concrete pillars, making future excavations possible. The bones were found in an area where one of the pilings will be placed.

Preliminary Reports Wrong

Initially, archeologists said they had discovered three Indians’ remains, but Worley said that the remains of only two Indians have been found and that the other remains are probably of an early Spaniard traveling in the area.

The remains were discovered in parts, leading archeologists to speculate that the remains had been disturbed during mission construction in the early 1800s.

The discovery was believed to be the first excavation of American Indian remains on the mission grounds, city and church officials have said.

The bones were found near an area that for 18 years had been part of an archeological excavation by University of San Diego faculty and students. Church officials had doubted that remains existed under the construction site, but Worley said the discovery was not necessarily unexpected because bones had been found elsewhere on the grounds.

Worley repeated an earlier church statement that, though some burials were made in the area, the site is not an old mission graveyard for Indians.