It was a matter of the community determining, from its own perspective and with its own authorities and knowledge holders, what research was appropriate, what questions deserved to be asked, and what the ultimate disposition of the remains should be.

Indigenous traditional knowledge holders participated in the research process not as background providers of color and context but as experts whose knowledge of the landscape, the routes, the traditional social organization, and the appropriate treatment of the dead shaped the interpretation of the scientific findings.

When the isotope analysis showed marine food consumption, the knowledge of traditional trade networks between coast and interior helped the research team understand what that finding might mean.

When the DNA analysis identified the haplogroup and then the seventeen living relatives, the knowledge of matrilineal clan organization provided a cultural framework for interpreting what the genetic result signified in human and social terms.