College May Release Ancient Bones for Reburial by Indians : Archeology: A final inquiry is planned over the scientific value of the 3,000-year-old remains of Miwoks and Yukots, in storage since the 1970s.

A collection of ancient American Indian bones, which languished virtually unnoticed for nearly two decades in storage rooms at Cal State Long Beach, may soon be returned to Indians to be reburied in Central California.

“They have to be cleansed, purified, re-sanctified and put back into the earth,” said Little Crow, executive director of the American Indian Unity Church in Garden Grove, who has advocated that the bones and other artifacts be returned.

“Our oral traditions speak to us about how these things should be buried and, once buried, left alone,” said Little Crow, who also is a university professor in American Indian studies. “Removing them and warehousing them was not only disrespectful, it was sacrilegious.”

The 3,000-year-old artifacts and bones of about 60 prehistoric Indians of the Miwok and Yukot tribes of Central California were gathered during Cal State archeological expeditions to the San Joaquin Valley.

The expeditions were led by Cal State anthropology professor Franklin Fenenga, who had been hired by the Army Corps of Engineers to excavate the sites of dozens of prehistoric Indian villages along the Madera River, where the corps was building Hensley Dam. About 400 of Fenenga’s students participated in the 1971-76 expeditions.

Although the corps officially owned the bones, it had no real interest in them. So for two decades, the collection languished unnoticed and uncatalogued in two campus storerooms while Fenenga pursued other interests.

The collection was discovered several months ago when university officials decided to clear out the storerooms for other purposes. The discovery--and extraordinary precautions taken by university officials in moving the collection--generated publicity that set in motion Indian lobbying.

After the corps inspects the collection and determines its scientific value, it will work with the Native American Heritage Commission to contact Central California Indians to discuss the ultimate disposition of the materials, said Patti Johnson, an archeologist assigned to the corps’ Sacramento district. The Native American Heritage Commission is a state agency set up for such purposes.

“This is all we’re ever going to know about these archeological sites and the people who lived there,” Johnson said. “The rest of it is now underwater.”

Although in some cases compromises can be worked out with the Indians to allow further research, the law clearly gives the Indians the right to do with the bones what they wish, said Larry Meyers, Heritage Commission executive secretary.

“It’s not a question of scientific value but of religious rights,” Meyers said. “It’s important to get archeologists out of the graveyards of Indians.”

But Fenenga, who has retired, said the university should try to retain the collection for further study to shed light on an indigenous population about which little is known.

Losing the collection “would be a great tragedy,” he said. “It would be a loss to science.”

Before removing the collection from storage, university employees took the unusual step of sealing off the rooms and donning protective suits attached to an outside air supply. They treated the material with chemicals, placed items in heavy plastic bags and sealed them into a shipping container, which was moved to a relatively unused corner of the campus until officials decide what to do with the collection.

In researching the history of the bones and sample soils, officials came across an unsettling discovery: The collection had been associated with an outbreak of valley fever, a rare disease that killed one of the students involved in the original excavation in 1971.

Caused by a fungus that exists in certain types of soil, medical experts say, the disease is borne by spores that--when stirred up in dust--are often inhaled by construction workers, agricultural workers and archeologists. Once inhaled, the mold takes root in the lungs, where it can wreak havoc ranging from mild flulike symptoms to death in rare cases.

In 1971, 28 of the digging students came down with valley fever.

University officials decided last year not to take a chance by moving the collection. Fenenga said then that he thought officials were being overly cautious.