Museums can return ancestors while preserving records of what has already been learned.

Tribal governments can decide which questions are appropriate and which are not.

The story therefore ends with a principle that extends beyond one burial.

Scientific ability is not the same as ethical permission.

The fact that a test can be done does not automatically mean it should be done.

Spirit Cave became historically important because a difficult test was eventually permitted under conditions connected to repatriation.

The genome mattered because the process around it mattered too.

That lesson will only become more important as technology advances.

The ancestor from Spirit Cave lived in a world without museums, courts, genetics laboratories, or federal law.

His remains passed through all of them.