Santa Fe Indian School senior’s project on identifying remains OK’d by tribe leaders
Daniel Pedro's family was a little taken aback when he announced his intent to study ancestral human remains.
On the 19-year-old's native Zuni Pueblo, it is taboo for tribal members to handle remains.
But as a budding anthropologist, Pedro said he's been troubled by one method that's used to identify where American Indian remains came from, which involves crushing bone to extract DNA.
There must be a better way, Pedro thought. For three years, Pedro has been working on a computer program that might one day determine the ethncity of skeletal remains simply by analyzing their facial structure.
The Santa Fe Indian School senior's project was honored last month with a creativity and innovation award at the New Mexico Supercomputing Challenge, as well as a $1,000 award from the Santa Fe Institute.
Before he began his project, Pedro sought out the blessing of Zuni Pueblo leadership, who OK'd the research so long as someone else handled the remains. His family also came around to the idea.
"They finally accepted that I wasn't gonna give up," Pedro said. "They feel like it'll be good for the community."
Pedro worked with a University of New Mexico human osteologist to identify 11 points on the face that could be used to distinguish between different tribes.
He then created an algorithm that used the points to classify photographs of classmates he had taken as either Zuni, Navajo or something else.
Pedro has yet to try the method out on actual remains, but he believes its initial success on flesh-and-blood classmates demonstrates its potential.
Pedro hopes the program will help American Indian tribes repatriate ancestral remains from museums.
"Instead of being in boxes, they can rest in pueblo sites," he said. "Personally, I feel I don't want my ancestral remains to be handled and studied by other people."
Pedro's mentor on the project was Stephen Guerin of the Redfish Group in Santa Fe, who said his protege's tenacity, creativity and attention to detail has paid off.
Pedro is headed to the University of New Mexico at Gallup next year, where he hopes to resume his research.
