Tribe conducts ceremony to free spirits

KINGMAN, Ariz. -- A Hualapai tribal ceremony was held Monday to set free the lingering spirits left in limbo by the disturbing of the dead at Kingman High School.

Tribal representative Drake Havatone offered prayers and songs where construction crews digging a trench disturbed 11 grave sites in an abandoned cemetery underneath the campus.

He dropped ceremonial pollens to the north, south, east and west before conducting a spiritual sage burning.

"It's a prayer session and a cleansing session to get the spirits to move on," explained Oz Enderby, director of construction for the Kingman Unified School District.

"The point is when you disturb the spirits, they hang around there ... What this does is to get the spirits to move on and get each of us cleansed and our families so that when we leave and go home bad things won't happen to us if these spirits are unhappy," he said.

Human bones were first discovered during the initial trench excavation effort July 28. Archaeologists and the Mohave County medical examiner's office were brought in to exhume, catalog and package the remains when the digging resumed Aug. 4.

A row of coffins was disturbed when the work resumed across the 100-foot stretch of trench crossing the Pioneer Cemetery, which was closed in 1917.

"There were seven of them (coffins) that were exposed pretty much intact," Enderby said. "I saw at least two coffins where there were full skeletons, full skeletal remains that the archaeologist removed."

Superintendent Roger Jacks said school district and construction personnel have done all they can to comply with legal protocols and handle the sensitive work with respect and dignity for the dead.

That officials don't know the identities of the dead or their relatives is not uncommon in historical cemetery scenarios given poor record keeping in the past, said Arizona State Museum Director Beth Grindell.

She said the final resting place for the remains should be determined within a month.