The legal deadlock that had persisted for more than twenty years was resolved not by a court decision but by the scientific evidence that both sides had ultimately agreed to let speak.

The remains of the Spirit Cave Man were repatriated to the Fallon Paiute-Shoshone Tribe.

The formal handover took place on November 22, 2016 — prior to the publication of the scientific paper, reflecting the agreement’s terms that the Tribe would be informed of the results and that repatriation would follow regardless of when the science was published.

Willerslev attended the private burial ceremony that the Tribe conducted for the individual they called the Storyteller.

In what he later described as one of the most moving experiences of his professional life, he witnessed the Tribe finally completing the act of care for an ancestor that had been interrupted more than two decades earlier by legal proceedings and scientific controversy.