Prehistoric Native Bones Found At Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes
A few years back in 2017 a man made an unbelievable discovery apparently at the Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes, as he discovered prehistoric Native American remains that had potentially been exposed due to erosion. A year and a half after removing them from the park he returned the remains where they had been analyzed. The Leelanau County medical examiner’s office transferred the remains to a Western Michigan University lab for analysis and after communicating with park officials, concluded the bones were of "most likely prehistoric in age."
It could easily be assumed the bones are that of prehistoric Ottawa or Chippewa Natives given the position of the sand dunes geographically, however because of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, a law that includes a process for determining Native American organizations’ rights to native human remains and cultural objects found on federal or tribal lands, that information is of sensitive nature. The park has sent an open invitation for the bones to be claimed to The Tribes.
Finding prehistoric human bones is most likely one of the rarer finds you'll make in Michigan apart from the Woolley Mammoth or maybe the Giant Beaver. Sadly, No dinosaurs have ever been discovered in Michigan, mainly because during the Mesozoic Era (250 to 65 million years ago), when the dinosaurs last lived, the sediments in this state were steadily being eroded by natural forces, so there weren't any surface rocks of the right age to preserve them.
This however is still an astounding discovery, as I'm sure we'll find out in the time to come who they may have belonged to and perhaps see an artist's rendering picture of the bones once we know just WHAT was found.
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