CHARLESTON, W.Va. - The proposed reburial of 600 American Indians unearthed in Putnam County has been caught up again in red tape.

In September, Ohio State University officials turned the remains over to the West Virginia Division of Culture and History. Putnam County Commissioner Joe Haynes thought the bones would be quickly reburied.

Instead, state officials say they plan to re-inventory the remains and artifacts and try once again to find a tribe to claim them.

Haynes says the state is doing work that has already been finished.

"Ohio State did a complete inventory in the 1990s and we've contacted every tribe that could possibly have a connection to West Virginia," he said.

"Why would you do work that has already been done? To me it sounds like a stalling

tactic."

Division of Culture and History officials say they have to reinventory the more than 150 boxes of remains and artifacts to stay in compliance with the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act.

Under the rules of the 1990 NAGPRA law, the state has to start from step one and go through the process of a complete inventory and attempting to establish a cultural affiliation with a federally recognized tribe to repatriate the remains, said Susan Pierce, deputy state historic preservation officer.

"My ultimate goal is to insure that NAGPRA is followed through on," Pierce said. "The goal of NAGPRA is the return of the human remains to their tribe.... It is ultimately [the tribe's] decision how the human remains will be laid to rest."

The skeletal remains were unearthed in 1963 in Buffalo less than a mile from the present-day Toyota plant. American Electric Power owns the land now.

During the two-year excavation project, crews unearthed countless artifacts and the outlines of a village 400 to 500 years old.

Crews also dug up more than 500 graves. After their exhumation, the bones passed through several institutions, before they ended up in storage at Ohio State University in the early 1990s.

In March 2008, Putnam County commissioners signed a letter stating they were willing to accept the remains and rebury them in an undisclosed site.

Some archaeologists spoke out against the reburials, saying it would destroy the chance for future scientific discoveries about the origins of the remains.

In May 2008, the state and the Putnam County Commission brought the issue of reburying the remains before the NAGPRA review committee. The committee tabled the issue saying there were too many unanswered questions of who had legal control of the skeletal remains.

State culture and history officials intervened and took control of the remains after they were able to locate a lease agreement between Union Carbide and West Virginia stating that all excavation materials would become the property of the state.

The Putnam County Commission did not contest the state action, and the "Buffalo 600" are now at the Grave Creek Mound Archaeological Center in Moundsville.

NAGPRA, passed in 1990, allows federally recognized tribes to reclaim Indian remains and artifacts from museums and universities. No federally recognized tribes have claimed the Buffalo 600, and the remains have been deemed "culturally unidentifiable," meaning they cannot be linked to modern-day tribes, Haynes said.

"We were assured they were going to be repatriated," Haynes said. "That was certainly the direction that we were led to believe."

Haynes received a letter from the state in December stating, "Repatriation doesn't necessarily mean reburial."

Pierce said now that the remains are in the control of the Division of Culture and History, they are held accountable to follow NAGRPA.

"We appreciate what Putnam County has attempted to do, but we are still held accountable to do the necessary steps," said Jacqueline Proctor, communications director for the Division of Culture and History.

Ohio State completed an inventory on the remains while they were in the university's possession, but Pierce and Proctor say the inventory needs work.

They also believe conducting another inventory of the remains may lead to overlooked clues to a cultural affiliation.

"It's not just whether somebody is interested in the remains, it's whether or not there is a scientific demonstration that [a tribe is] associated with the remains and they have a true claim," Pierce said.

Neither Pierce nor Proctor would say when the inventory might be complete.

Haynes said the state has enough to go before the NAGRPA review committee to show the remains are "culturally unidentifiable," and seek permission to have them reburied.

The undisclosed site in Putnam County for the reburial is still available and will remain so, he said.

"As long as they get reburied, we can be involved or not be involved. As long as it gets done in a dignified manner that's all that matters," Haynes said. "There are no artifacts here, and the sooner we start thinking of them as people and not artifacts, the more people will understand the urgency here."

Reach Veronica Nett at veroni...@wvgazette.com">veroni...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-5113.