The ancestor remained outside tribal control.

This long gap between legal success and actual return is instructive.

Institutional disputes often do not end when one side wins a ruling.

Agencies may reopen reviews, commission new analyses, request additional evidence, or wait for changing policy.

Time itself becomes part of the burden.

From a museum’s perspective, another year may be an administrative delay.

From a tribe’s perspective, another year can mean an ancestor remains unburied.

That difference in urgency is easy to overlook.

Spirit Cave lasted long enough for an entire scientific field to change around it.

Ancient DNA went from a limited and highly difficult specialty to one of the most transformative tools in archaeology.