But it would not answer the questions of how the remains came to be where they are, who bears responsibility for that situation, or what the appropriate resolution would be.

Those questions require historical research, ethical deliberation, and consultation with the communities most directly affected.

Treating DNA testing as a magic solution to the mystery — one that would definitively resolve everything — would be inaccurate.

Treating it as a useful scientific tool that could provide material evidence about a specific factual question is accurate.

The distinction matters because the DNA question is only one part of a larger set of questions about accountability, dignity, and justice that science cannot answer alone.

Science can tell us what the remains are.