The first successful extraction of ancient DNA from human remains had been published only a few years earlier, and the methods were still in development.

More importantly, the political and ethical environment around ancient DNA from Indigenous human remains was not what it later became — the frameworks for consent, consultation, and collaboration that would govern later ancient DNA research had not yet been established.

The Buhl Woman was repatriated and reburied before any genetic analysis was possible or would have been contemplated by the archaeologists involved.

The bone samples that were taken for radiocarbon dating and isotopic analysis were taken before reburial.