Ohio State’s anthropology department has plans to return the remains of 600 American Indians, excavated 35 years ago, to their original resting place in Buffalo, W. Va.

OSU’s anthropology department has been serving as caretaker of the remains.

The remains are at the university because Paul W. Sciulli, professor of anthropology, claimed them from the University of Toledo six years ago, where they were in danger of being discarded, said Maggie Crawford, a member of the Native American Historical Council of West Virginia.

When the remains were brought to OSU, the anthropology department did not know what to do with them, Crawford said. She said Sciulli has been very cooperative, basically storing them so they wouldn’t be thrown away.

“The only tests that have been performed on the remains were to evaluate and document everything the university had obtained, which included only remains, no artifacts,” Sciulli said. “We checked the condition, how many were there and made measurement to find which of the remains were male or female. We will do no further tests without first speaking to the representatives in Buffalo, and we will not perform any tests that will destroy the remains,” he said.

This summer Sciulli intends to look at the remains and store them in new boxes for two reasons.

“When we received the remains, they were not stored very well and the bodies must be separate to be reburied under Native American traditions, so we are going to prepare them to be shipped and reburied,” Sciulli said.

The bodies are to be shipped in about two years, Crawford said.

“Currently we are in the final stages of negotiations with American Electric Power over the area of land where the bodies were excavated,” Crawford said. “Hopefully the negotiations will end within six months and the remains will be in Buffalo not long after that.”

The negotiations will determine how the site will be maintained, Crawford said. The Archeological Conservatory wants control of the site in order to do more excavation, she said.

“The conservatory, a group which takes care of and preserves endangered sites, simply does not need to save anything this time,” Crawford said. “The town of Buffalo and the historical society want the site set up as not only a reburial area, but also a memorial park and information center.”

The initial excavation of the bodies were begun 1963 by a state archeologist, Edward McMichael, who is now deceased. Union Carbide, the company that owned the land, was going to build a factory. McMichael was informed that some arrowheads, broken pottery and a few shards of bones were found on the land, and he decided to uncover a foot or two of topsoil to find remnants of what previously occupied the land. The excavation was a success for McMichael, who found an estimated 560 bodies, including artifacts, but what was once a success for McMichael has led to protest from the American Indian community.

The remains were excavated, robbed of their artifacts, sent to Toledo, claimed by OSU so they would not be thrown out and more than 35 years later the remains have still not returned.

“The remains are supposed to be in Buffalo, so let them get back to Buffalo,” Sciulli said. “The residents there want them. That is where they are taken from, and since I am now responsible for them, I will see they return to the rightful place.”