What would happen to the data?

How much material would be removed?

Would the result actually change the government’s position?

Would the study respect the tribe’s understanding of the remains as an ancestor rather than simply as a sample?

Eventually, the Fallon Paiute-Shoshone Tribe agreed to allow genetic testing under conditions tied to the repatriation process.

That decision created the opening for one of the most consequential ancient DNA analyses in the history of the Americas.

In 2015, geneticist Eske Willerslev and colleagues collected samples from the Spirit Cave remains with tribal permission.

The team faced a difficult technical challenge.

More than ten thousand years of time had degraded the DNA.

The remains had also been excavated and handled decades before modern contamination standards existed.