But the hypothesis was scientifically live enough to be taken seriously, and in the legal context of the Spirit Cave dispute, it provided a basis for opponents of repatriation to argue that the connection between the ancient remains and modern Native American communities was not established.

Eske Willerslev, one of the world’s leading ancient DNA researchers and a professor at the University of Copenhagen and Cambridge, understood that the Paleoamerican debate was ultimately a genetic question.

Skull shapes could be ambiguous; DNA would not be.

The Woman Who Found The Cave And The Man Inside It

Before going further into the scientific and legal controversies that would define the Spirit Cave case for the next several decades, it is worth pausing to consider the discovery itself from a different angle.

Georgia Wheeler was not a background figure in the Spirit Cave story.