The repatriation proceeded over the strenuous objections of many archaeologists, who argued that the antiquity of the remains was so great — 12,500 or more calendar years ago — that establishing cultural affiliation with any currently existing tribe was scientifically impossible.

The Shoshone-Bannock Tribes were a relatively recent formation in the specific sense of their political organization, though they and their ancestors had inhabited the Snake River Plain for thousands of years before the establishment of the Fort Hall Reservation.

The specific question of whether the Buhl Woman was ancestral to the Shoshone-Bannock, in any meaningful biological or cultural sense, could not be answered — and by 1991 was legally and practically moot, because the law directing repatriation did not require proof of affiliation, only proximity.

The archaeological objections were real and scientifically grounded.