As a graduate student I was interested in this region and its 1000's of
petroglyphs, the debate over the peopling of the Americas (intermontaine
vs. the coastal eco-niches, which reflect some of the current salmonid
anadromous fish species, and other developments that led me to spend one
season in historical archaeology in the melting glaciers of Skaqway,
Alaska, site of the Klondike Gold Rush in the 1890's and the construction
of the international railroad to White Horse, Yukon Territory now I think
over 100 years old. One of its engines is in Dollywood, North Carolina,
Dolly Parton having purchased it for her family entertainment center.

Anyway, I would like to discuss a subtext to this argument that has
persistently arrived over and over. The signer of the the bill former
President George Bush was a member of the Yale University "Skull and Bones"
club, a fraternity of powerful people historically. His son, current
President of the US and his possible Presidential replacement, Senator
Kerry, are both former members. Here's the problem:

It has come to the public's attention that this fraternity has or had dug
up the skull of a native said to belong to Jeronimo (or Geronimo) a famous
Apache (see Morris Opler on the extended kinship of the Apache, recently
stated in the A.A.A. materials, also presented three briefs representing
the Japanese-Americans held in internment camps, two of which were heard by
the US Supreme Court. His brother, Marvin Opler taught in the Medical and
regular school of graduate studies at SUNY at Buffalo, NY in Psychiatry and
Anthropology. I studied there under him) and recently a meeting was called
between the two parties, which resulted in an impasse as the skull shown an
expert was not considered to be authentic. Complication the issue is that a
cache of old medical specimens had also been found a number of years ago at
Yale in one of its buildings and it was thought that this is where the
story came from. However, if no one had met with an expert and the the
human remains it would lead credence to that conclusion, the meeting
however leads credence to the whole story. I thought this list might be
interested and I feel if it is true it a regrettable incident, which I hope
will lead to a resolution. The Apache have also recently lost much of their
woodlands in a terrible rash of fires, part of their livelihood I
understand. It seems that this may have added insult to injury?