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Native remains found in city were not part of burial site
Crew resumes sewer line project after archeological investigation
By Sam Scott
She appears to have been buried alone.
Archeological workers inspecting a site near recently unearthed Native American remains last week said they found no other artifacts. The determination allows the city of Sunnyvale to continue laying a new sewer line below Fair Oaks Ave. Discovery of further Indian artifacts or bodies could have delayed the project for months.
The city hired an archeological firm to examine the site after construction workers exposed part of a human skeleton in a six-foot trench on May 9. An anthropologist from the Santa Clara County Coroner's office identified the remains as prehistoric Native American. In accordance with state law dealing with Native American sites, the most likely descendant was contacted and the city hired an archeologist and a Native American monitor to examine the site.
Indian remains are a rare find in the city, officials said. "We know to look for it," said Trudi Ryan, Sunnyvale Planning Officer said. "But it doesn't happen often at all."
Last Tuesday, a team of archeological workers and an Native American monitor began sifting buckets of dirt for other artifacts
Ted Stearns, a field technician with Archeological Resource Management, said the inspection produced nothing else.
Stearns said the body, covered with two to three feet of naturally deposited soil, was probably deliberately buried, but appeared to be buried alone. Judging by pelvic and cranial size, he said the remains appeared to be of an adult female.
Stearns said finding sign of no other bodies pleased the archeologists.
"That's the way we like it," he said. "It is disturbing a burial ground."
Ramona Garibay, the Native American monitor and a descendant of the Ohlone tribe, said she was also glad no other bodies were found.
She said she takes the unearthing of bodies as an intrusion.
"How would you feel if someone in your family got dug up?" she said. "There nothing we can do about it. The only thing we can do is make sure it's respected."
Mark Dettle, the Assistant Director of Public Works for Sunnyvale, said the archeological team inspected about 100 feet of trench.
Construction work resumed the next day, albeit at a slower pace. Dettle said digging below four feet would be done carefully until the workers had reached the next intersection. At that point, the Native American monitor and archeological observer would leave the project.
The exhumed body was given to a representative of the Ohlone tribe. Debbie Treadway, an analyst with the state's Native Heritage Commission, said the assertion of the body's tribal heritage was based on the Ohlone historical presence in the area. She said, however, matching a body with a tribe was not an exact science.
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Sunnyvale, California Since 1994
