If a "huge" load of scientifically valuable prehistoric animal bones aren't returned soon to the Museum of the Aleutians, they may end up in the trash in Canada, according to a frustrated scientist in Victoria, British Columbia, who is encountering tax problems while trying to avoid international legal difficulties.
It turns out that the $6,000 set aside for shipping three shrink-wrapped pallets of nearly a half million bones back to Unalaska is causing financial headaches for the private research firm, Pacific Identifications, according to zoologist and treasurer Susan Crockford.
"We had to pay taxes on these funds to carry them forward to this year. We are unwilling to pay taxes on these funds for yet another year," Crockford said in an email to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. "It means that if we cannot get the import permit required to ship the material by August of this year at the latest, we face having to do something unconscionable to professional archaeologists and research scientists: send all 57 boxes to the dump."
Most likely, no federal permits are needed, according to Andrea Medeiros, a Fish and Wildlife spokeswoman in Anchorage, since the bones came from Native corporation land, and not federal property, under the terms of the Archaeological Resources Protection Act. However, Fish and Wildlife Service officials were still reviewing the requirements of international treaties involving endangered species and migratory birds.
The bones, nearly a half million in all, were excavated from Unalaska's Amaknak Bridge site in 2003 by former museum director and archaeologist Rick Knecht and various students and local volunteers. Around 2004 they were sent to the Canadian scientists, who held them pending further study until 2014, when they decided to send them back, but ran into bureaucratic roadblocks, according to Crockford.
Former interim museum executive director Cynthia Jones told the museum's board in April that Knecht sent them out of the country without FWS approval. Knecht said he was unaware of any such requirement.
Museum board member Melissa Good of the University of Alaska Fairbanks' Bristol Bay Campus said the bones contain valuable information for studying climate change. Crockford described the collection as scientifically priceless though commercially worthless with the only price tag being $350 for packaging material.
"This assemblage is unlike any other in the Alaska prehistory sequence. It bears unmistakable evidence of a severe cold period when sea ice in the Bering Sea was much more extensive than it is today. Only about 10 percent of the material has been identified, which means there is the potential for more analysis to be done, including DNA analysis," Crockford said.
Crockford described the bone boxes of bones as a "huge assemblage of material," and museum board members wondered where storage space might be found.
The ancient animal bones are between 2,500 and 3,500 years old, and about 42,000 pieces have been identified, said Crockford, who did mention one unlikely alternative to a modern midden heap: giving them away in Canada.
However, "archive space is already at a premium for material of Canadian origin," Crockford said.
Pacific Identifications specializes in identifying prehistoric bird, fish and mammal bones from archaeological excavations required to allow construction projects to occur. In Unalaska, the project was the new South Channel Bridge, also called the Bridge to the Other Side, with the state transportation department paying for the study of an ancient Aleut village near the bridge site.
"Unfortunately, staff at the Museum of the Aleutians has not been helpful, as they have had some problems recently, and are looking for a new director," Crockford said in a Feb. 22 letter to Edward J. DeCleva, USFWS regional historic preservation officer in Anchorage.
The museum closed to the public last year following the resignation of former executive director Zoya Johnson because an antique Russian Bible and other rare religious books from the museum were found in her home.
The museum's board chair, Suzi Golodoff, is confident the bones will be returned to Unalaska. The museum remains closed until a new executive director is hired, hopefully by June or July. Two finalists are under consideration: Neal Hitch of California and Marnie Leist of Kodiak, Golodoff said Tuesday.
This story first appeared in The Bristol Bay Times/Dutch Harbor Fisherman and is republished here with permission.