Thursday, July 02, 2009

"Bones" mystery solved for Buffalo Soldier

A couple of years ago Jen and I liked the TV show "Bones," about a bone/skeleton/paleontology specialist chick at the "Jeffersonian" who solved murders, but it got a bit soap operaish for us. Maybe it's not just fiction. A fascinating piece here about researchers at the Smithsonian who have analyzed some bones and solved some mysteries about a Fort Craig in New Mexico, apparently remote outpost which was abandoned in 1880. People thought all the bodies buried there had been discovered and reburied, but when a guy who used to poke around for relics died a few years ago a skull was found in his possession, a friend told archeologists where he thought it was found, people started digging carefully, the bones of 39 people were found, and they have now been analyzed and reburied. One (identity found through old military records) was Thomas Smith, one of the legendary black Buffalo Soldiers, probably a former slave.

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