I don't know if this is the right place to post it.
Dated December 2 2009
Building of houses put on hold
CORPUS CHRISTI — A homebuilder has halted new construction after prehistoric Native American bones were found near a Southside subdivision.
Nueces County Medical Examiner Ray Fernandez on Monday examined two partial skeletons found in the 8000 block of Wooldridge Road near Oso Bay. He determined the bones were prehistoric and will ship the bones to a University of North Texas anthropologist for verification, Nueces County Medical Examiner’s chief investigator Ric Ortiz said.
An archeologist also examined the bones and determined that they are Native American, said Texas Historical Commission Archeological division Director James Bruseth.
Hogan Homes, which is selling lots in the neighborhood near where the bones were found, stopped new construction until a company-hired expert determines the size of the burial site found.
“Texas Health and Safety Code does not allow building of homes or other improvements over the top of a human cemetery,” Bruseth said. “A part that has not been developed is where the remains are coming from.”
Hogan Homes spokeswoman Karen Silvernail could not be reached for comment.
Bruseth will tour the site next week. He’s concerned that the bones were removed.
“These are prehistoric Native American remains,” he said. “What we want to do there is be respectful of these remains, not have them collected and put into a box someplace.”
Ortiz said police called the medical examiner to the subdivision. Only bones that were lying on the ground’s surface were collected. Investigators were concerned the bones could have been dumped there with truckloads of fill dirt hauled in and that the bones might have been the result of foul play.
“How do we not know that the bones were not brought in with the dirt?” he said. “We have missing people in Corpus Christi. What if it’s somebody else? That is our dilemma. If a citizen reports a bone we determine if it is human or not human. Then we try to find out whose it was.”
Once the remains are returned from Denton, they will be given to a Native American group so they may be repatriated, Ortiz said.
As part of the repatriation process, Fernandez’s office needs to submit an inventory of the bones to the federal government, and it must be published in a federal registry, Bruseth said.
Texas cemeteries, including ancient ones belonging to American Indians, are protected by state law.
The remains may be exhumed with state approval or preferably Hogan Homes will leave the cemetery alone and the exposed remains will be covered up, Bruseth said. The developer cannot build on the property until it’s resolved, he said.
“They understand that and they are doing everything they can to resolve it,” he said. “It’s the same law that protects a cemetery anywhere.”
