Santa Fe – An archaeological dig where human bones have been recovered is expected to delay a $55 million downtown construction project on Santa Fe’s Sweeney Convention Center beyond the center’s scheduled demolition date in November.
Tesuque Pueblo officials have expressed concerns over what they believe are remains of tribal ancestors.
Tim Maxwell, director of the state Office of Archaeological Studies, said about 100 “human elements” – mostly finger and toe bones – have been identified at the site. Because the archaeologists lack a state permit to excavate burials, they must leave human remains where they find them.
Mayor Larry Delgado, City Manager Mike Lujan and three city councilors met last week with Tesuque Pueblo Gov. Mark Mitchell and tribal councilors. City officials also plan to meet with officials of Pojoaque Pueblo and other tribes.
In August, under pressure from Tesuque Pueblo, the state Cultural Properties Review Committee tabled the city’s application for a burial- excavation permit until its Oct. 14 meeting.
At least one set of skeletal remains appears to be a person of European descent, Maxwell said. Without the permit, those remains also are being left in place.
“We’re in this Catch-22 because actually the law requires us to find out about the burials before we get a permit,” Maxwell said. “But we can’t do that because we’re not allowed to touch the burials.”
Since midsummer, archaeologists have been working near Federal Place on the ruins of Fort Marcy, a U.S. Army post dating from 1846. They have discovered ceramic dishes, iron tools and leather shoes.
Areas where prehistoric ruins – including American Indian graves – have been identified are covered with black tarps. A fence and other security measures have been added since the theft of a large pottery shard last month.
City officials want to replace the Sweeney Center with a 72,000-square-foot civic center and two-level underground parking garage. The construction schedule called for a July 2007 opening, but the archaeology issue will delay the project.
Tesuque officials remain adamantly opposed to exhuming any remains, saying it would be sacrilegious. Some city councilors hope for an accommodation.
“I’m hoping the door is open to an appropriate reburial,” Councilor David Pfeffer said.
The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990 calls for American Indian remains unearthed in excavations to be offered to tribes that can demonstrate a kinship.
Tesuque officials have indicated they don’t want to accept the remains, nor do they want to see them “sitting on shelves” in museums.
Maxwell said there’s no way to prove the people buried in what is now downtown Santa Fe were Tesuque ancestors. He said there are inadequate DNA signatures on the Tewa people, who have centuries of intermarriage with other native groups and Europeans.
But in last year’s preliminary excavations, “we saw enough pottery that we suspect that these were probably Tewa ancestors,” Maxwell said.
Archaeologists have long speculated Santa Fe was built on the site of an Indian village, which was abandoned before the Spanish founded the city in 1607.
