Ethical dilemmas for the homeowner

[mithriltabby]

obsessivewoman and I are having the back yard redone, putting in some support under the gazebo, adding some nice pathways to walk, and making the pond deep enough that the local raccoons don’t think it’s a sushi bar. Today, I brought her home early because she had a really nasty migraine, and the foreman showed us around, pointing out the work that had been done thus far, and mentioned they’d found a couple of human skeletons under the back yard. They had gathered the bones and placed them in a box, and asked if we wanted to call anyone about it. (After all, if red tape got involved, that might delay the construction work.) The bones were a dark enough brown that Mara figured they had been in the ground for quite some time, so I doubted that it was even going to be in a cold case file. So I doubted we were obstructing justice... but I figured we should be good citizens and find out what the appropriate procedures were anyway.

I phoned up Sunnyvale’s Department of Public Safety, and they sent out a CSI officer very quickly, who agreed that it was quite old, and phoned up the coroner’s office to see if they were interested. They sent out a forensic anthropologist working as Medical Examiner-Coroner, who was able to determine that they were probably two to three thousand years old, and was hoping to find a tooth to do better identification. (One of the bodies had been buried in fœtal position, so was unlikely to be a Westerner anyway.)

So work on the pond itself will have to wait for someone from the California Native American Heritage Commission to investigate, but they’re not going to complain about all the other work going on. (She said that if this had been found during groundbreaking for a housing development, they would’ve drawn a thirty foot radius around it to investigate, but in a suburban back yard, they’re not going to do as much digging.) So they’ll probably see if a representative of one of our local Ohlone tribes wants to do anything special, and then pond-building will resume.

On the “things I didn’t know” list:

• It’s a misdemeanor to willfully damage or destroy archæological evidence.
• It’s a misdemeanor to willfully disinter human remains on your own property, and the moment you find any such, you should stop work and get a coroner out to investigate.
• It’s a felony to remove Native American remains from a grave and keep them.

And I didn’t take photos; Native Americans tend to get unhappy when photos of their dead ancestors show up in the media, and the coroner was quite emphatic about making sure that the guy who had taken camera phone pix deleted them.

Comments

[deirdremoon.livejournal.com]

Wow. Just... wow. Curious how this progresses.

[devonapple.livejournal.com]

And the timing is odd considering this subject matter came up in a recent game, yes?

[racerxmachina.livejournal.com]

A brief pause while I pick my jaw up off the floor.
OK.

Of the folks I would put on my top 10 list of most likely to have something weird in their back yard, you are now numero uno. There's something so very, very poetic about this, even as it is inconvenient for you.

[weregamer.livejournal.com]

Heh, I must agree that as Weirdness Magnetism goes among folks I know, you or I have probably had the most overdue buildups. I wonder what will come due for me now?

Meanwhile, I am sort of juxtaposed between "That's cool, archeology in Max and Mara's back yard!" and "Oh noes, more annoyance for Max and Mara's backyard project!"

[wild-patience.livejournal.com]

That's pretty exciting. Re the things you didn't know, none of those is terribly surprising. It's a good thing you did the right thing.

[random-girl.livejournal.com]

Am I the first person who's going to say that I'm not shocked you found some evidence of an Indian Burial ground on your property? The house is totally quiet (at least it was when I lived there), but as previously stated by other posters, if this was to happen to anyone, you two are the top of my list of most likely to end up with dead people you didn't kill in your back yard.

[grandmoffdavid.livejournal.com]

Note to self: when disposing of bodies a time machine throws off the police entirely.

Home Improvement Karma

[danine.livejournal.com]

What a find -- two or three thousand years old? I will be waiting to hear what the Ohlone reps have to say. I believe the current wisdom is to leave the bones as they were found. Sounds like your neighborhood was attractive long before the Murphys showed up in Sunnyvale.

[kawgirl.livejournal.com]

That's fascinating, though I have to say I find it sad when people get dug up who probably didn't want to get dug up. So, the bones were put into boxes before you called the City? Did that cause an issue (disturbing an archaeological site and all)?

Please let us know how the story unfolds.

[mithriltabby]

Yeah, everything was in a box already by the time I showed up. I had three police cars out front at the peak of government interest, and the forensic anthropologist was a bit miffed that the workmen hadn’t stopped work immediately on discovering the bones, but they were most concerned that the camera photo that one workman was deleted ASAP. No one was talking about citing anyone for anything.

[daehith.livejournal.com]

Wow, that's really quite fascinating. Hope it doesn't disrupt your project too much.

So...does this mean your house is built on the horror-film "Indian graveyard" standby? Woah.

[mithriltabby]

No bizarre phenomena, obsessivewoman’s nightmares are less bad than they were in the days before we moved in together, and no one has ever been bothered by ghostly presences.

[mithriltabby]

Relevant rules:

§ 5097.98 says I may need to reinter remains and burial items with appropriate dignity, on my property, in a location not subject to further disturbance.

7050.5 says that excavation/disturbance has to stop until the county coroner makes a report.

[mithriltabby]

Debbie Treadway is in charge of Santa Clara County. She’s a scientist, and has previously recommended ceremonial reburial (also in Los Altos Hills).