A tribe says it will seek possession of human bones found protruding from an Idaho badger hole after tests determined they weren't from modern day homicide victims but belonged to people who lived five centuries ago.
Shoshone-Paiute Tribe Chairman Ted Howard said Thursday that Shoshones have occupied the southwestern Idaho area for thousands of years and the well-preserved bones of a young adult and a 10- to 15-year-old should be returned to the tribe for proper burial.
Law enforcement officials initially treated the fluke finding in high desert sagebrush in April as a double homicide until announcing Wednesday that carbon dating determined the bones to be hundreds of years old.
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management says it's storing the remains in a secure federal facility in Boise.
