Navajos to reclaim bones misidentified as artist’s

By The Associated Press Comments 0
Published: October 25, 2009

SALT LAKE CITY — A few months ago, the family of Everett Ruess, an idealistic young artist who vanished on a wilderness journey in 1934, was ready to accept his grim fate — that he had been killed by Indians.

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They prepared to cremate remains that were found in wild Utah redrock country, which would have forever sealed the legend of Ruess with ashes in the Pacific Ocean.

But nagging doubts led four nieces and nephews to another DNA lab, which reported the bones were from another, unknown person. It was a stunning reversal for a legend-busting story in National Geographic Adventure last spring.

For Ruess flame keepers, it was proof the man never wanted to be found. For the family, it was only more grief.

"It’s very difficult for us,” Brian Ruess, a 44-year-old software salesman in Portland, Ore., said Thursday. "Our interest was more for closure than romanticism. It’s tough.”

Ruess said the family was "very close” to cremating remains of somebody who wasn’t their uncle. Now the family is shipping the bones and a few artifacts to the Navajo Nation reservation where they were discovered last year. Scientists say the remains are most likely those of a young Navajo Indian.

So how did the original DNA researchers get it so wrong, and where does family go from here?

Brian Ruess said the family doesn’t know where to turn to solve the mystery of their uncle.

"The story is about Everett. We just found the wrong grave,” said David Roberts, a contributing editor of the magazine, who weaved a Navajo legend describing Ruess’ murder by other Indians to a site where an elder said he hastily buried the body.

"It’s possible he’s there, nearby,” Roberts said Thursday. He plans no further search.