Bureaucratic processes work slowly, and efforts Thursday to determine how to proceed after a highway construction crew uncovered ancient American Indian bones near Arlington are no exception.
Workers built a wooden A-frame structure to temporarily protect the remains from the weather Wednesday night at Highway 530 and Arlington Heights Road, where the state is widening the highway and installing a traffic signal.
On Thursday, a tribal gathering conducted a small ceremony, and a state archaeologist returned to the scene, but there was no further search for more bones.
State Department of Transportation officials are trying to coordinate a meeting that will include representatives of the Stillaguamish and Tulalip tribes, as well as the state’s historic preservation office, and state and federal highway officials, said Melanie Coon, a Transportation Department spokeswoman.
“This is not going to be a one-person operation. If this is going to be a bigger endeavor, we’ll determine who does it and how,” she said, adding that coordinating everyone’s schedule is no small feat.
In addition to an adult man’s skeletal remains and an additional adult’s skull, the highway crew unearthed clothing, cedar remnants and a bead, said Shawn Yanity, chairman of the Stillaguamish Tribe.
The Stillaguamish contacted Tulalip and Upper Skagit elders for spiritual guidance on how to deal with the remains in keeping with the tribes’ culture, he said.
Since the remains were found within the Stillaguamish Tribe’s historical lands less than a mile from a site that once was a Stillaguamish village, the remains probably will be reburied on Stillaguamish land, Yanity said. Currently, the tribe has no land zoned for a cemetery.
Yanity praised transportation officials.
“They have been just fabulous on meeting our needs on trying to get ourselves together and do the cultural part. … At the same time, we realize there’s a project here and there are impacts on both sides.”
Reporter Cathy Logg: 425-339-3437 or logg@heraldnet.com.
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