Following this thread of public responsibility to be nice to what seems to be
crazy notions, let me relate an interesting anecdote. Were it not for these
threads online, I do believe these tales would only be told over beer at some
conferece bar.

1.  The Monkey Skull.  A bit over 26 years ago, two Luiseno Indians contacted
the County of San Diego reporting they discovered a prehistoric monkey skull
near Oceanside, California. After a long discussion, I drove out to view the
find. Just before I arrived, one of the brothers accidentally crushed the
fossil between his fingers. Embarrassed, they would not let me take away the
pieces. I politely discussed the merits of leaving the bones in place and
taking photographs and drawing sketches.  A year later, those same Luiseno
Indians called the California Indian Legal Services to report a human skull
ripped from the banks of the San Luis Rey River near the Pala Indian
Reservation. This time, I organized a team from the San Diego Museum of Man
and brought two of my students from San Diego Mesa College.

We arrived to find a human skeleton embedded in river deposits at about 2
meters below surface. A backhoe operator stole the human skull. This was on
the Pala Indian Reservation and the families were furious. But, the two
Luiseno Indians felt they owed science for the monkey skull they crushed, so
they convinced the elders to let us document and remove the skeleton. We
worked with the Luiseno to excavate, make wall profiles, remove sand from
around the skeleton and take photos and do sketches. They brought food and
set up lamps for night excavation. The entire time I could not believe they
were encouraging me to do archaeology on a skeleton at the reservation. Upon
completion, we backfilled and shook hands before departing. The skeleton went
to the San Diego Museum of Man.

The skeleton was embedded in a matrix associated with a 1870s bottle neck.
The foot bones were gone, indicating subsequent river action removed them. I
interpretted this to be an accidental drowning, rather than a burial.

Five years later, I chanced to visit the museum (not a place I had stopped in
the entire 5 years). There in the Bones Lab were the two Luiseno brothers.
They came to pick up the skeleton to take it back to the San Luis Rey River
for reburial. We all reminisced about that night when we worked together to
recover the remains for science. I could not believe the coincidence that
brought us all together. But, the Luiseno responded the spirit of the
skeleton wanted a story told and we were drawn to play out the last of the
tale. We all parted on good terms.

The point here is that by being nice and kind in dealing with odd stories, we
can later have beneficial circumstances. Who would have known that the Tale
of the Monkey Skull" would lead to the discovery and mutual scientific dig of
a human skeleton at the Pala Indian Reservation in 1976.

Ron May
Legacy 106, Inc.