Construction site yields remains older than 100

Friday, Jan. 3, 2003 | 9:06 a.m.

Pottery shards and skeletal remains linked to the Paiute tribe were found on a construction site in North Las Vegas, police officials from the city said.

City Manager Kurt Fritsch said there's a chance the remains are not from a Paiute ancestor, but instead from a member of a different tribe passing through the area more than 100 years ago.

The artifacts were located while preparing the land for a construction project in the northwest part of the city sometime before Monday, when a private citizen notified the police of the find.

North Las Vegas Police determined that there was no crime involved at the scene and that the artifacts were probably from a historic burial site. The Las Vegas Paiute tribe was contacted and together with police and an archaeologist from Henderson Police, the Paiutes were able to remove the artifacts safely from the site.

Fritsch said the find will not block construction on the sight because all artifacts have been removed.

A law prohibits revealing the exact location of the site, but the area is known to have been a watering area for the Paiutes in the late 1800s and early 1900s, officials said. An archeologist with the tribe said the artifacts were at least 100 years old, said Mark Martin, spokesman for North Las Vegas Police.