The unexcavated portion of Windover Pond reflects this evolving ethic in a practical way.

The decision to leave half the site intact was motivated partly by scientific prudence — reserving the opportunity for future analysis with better tools — but it also effectively preserves a portion of the cemetery from further disturbance.

Whether the unexcavated portion will ever be scientifically investigated, and if so under what protocols and with what consultation, will depend on decisions made in a very different ethical environment from the one in which the original excavations were conducted.

The materials already recovered — the 168 individuals, the organic artifacts, the tissue samples — exist in a complex ethical space.