A tribe says it will seek possession of human bones found protruding from an Idaho badger hole -- after tests determined they weren't from modern-day homicide victims, but belonged to people who lived five centuries ago.
Shoshone-Paiute Tribe Chairman Ted Howard said Thursday that Shoshones have occupied the southwestern Idaho area for thousands of years, and the well-preserved bones of a young adult and a 10- to 15-year-old should be returned to the tribe for proper burial.
Law enforcement officials initially treated the fluke-finding in high desert sagebrush in April as a double homicide -- until announcing Wednesday that carbon dating determined the bones to be hundreds of years old.
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management says it's storing the remains in a secure federal facility in Boise.
by Keith Rider
Associated Press
