Thanks for today's first genuine laugh. It's an ironic laugh, though, when I realize people with power take this stuff seriously and divvy up money and special "rights" on that basis. I wonder if anyone's ever going to do a genetic study to find out who all those "indigenous" people displaced?
I think that was part of the stink about Kenniwick Man, the one the Indians wanted to bury and prevent scientists from studying. The preliminary findings were, I think, that his bone structure was very different than Indians and the dating suggested he might have been part of a group of earlier, racially distinct settlers who were wiped out by the current Indians.
This was the one that was fought in the courts for years ended finally when Clinton did a fait accomplait by ordering the Army Corps of Engineers to bury the site under thousands of tons of rubble.
Maybe the Mexicans? They're not bound by the (Good Intention) NAGPRA