That is the unusual shape of the story.

The DNA test was both an act of scientific investigation and a bridge out of scientific custody.

The same body that had been kept because researchers wanted to know more was sampled one last time in order to help establish that it should be returned.

Science opened the museum door.

Then the tribe closed the burial.

That is why the Spirit Cave case stays with people.

It begins with discovery, grows into conflict, turns on evidence, and ends not with a display case or a laboratory chart, but with a private act of return.

The oldest part of the story is the burial.

The newest part is also the burial.

Everything in between was the interruption.