Group: Slow the project at Alamo
Archaeologists have found human remains in at least four places at the Alamo church where digs are underway, according to reports submitted to the Texas Historical Commission.
The discoveries prompted the leader of a Native American group to call on city and state officials to reconsider the timeline for the $450 million public-private makeover of the sacred shrine, on track to be done by 2024. That year marks the tricentennial of the 1724 founding of the third and final site of Mission San Antonio de Valero, which became the Alamo.
“We can slow this project down. We can do it right,” Ramón Vásquez, executive member of the Tap Pilam Coahuiltecan Nation, said at a news conference Monday on Indigenous People’s Day.
The local indigenous group filed a federal lawsuit last month seeking to halt the project until group members, many of them descendants of people who lived in the area before the Spaniards arrived, can have a voice in deciding what happens to any unearthed human remains. Vásquez said the revelation of the discovery of bones and bone fragments validates his group’s concerns.
The Land Office issued a news release Friday announcing bone fragments had been found and
would be handled in accordance with a 17-page human remains treatment protocol developed by the Land Office and Alamo Trust, in consultation with an advisory committee composed of six representatives from federally recognized tribal nations. Tap Pilam isn’t one of them.
Vásquez said Tap Pilam filed an open records request three weeks ago with the historical commission, the permitting agency for archaeological digs at the Alamo, seeking any documents concerning discovery of human remains. The group has since received 200 pages of documents, he said, confirming remains had been found in the church excavation unit that’s 2 meters by 2 meters, about 6.6 feet by 6.6 feet.
Tap Pilam released a report by Raba Kistner, the contract archaeologist, stating that bone fragments and “a highly worn tooth” were found Aug. 14 on the north side of the church nave, near a 4inch cast iron sewer line that officials have said is not identified on historical utility maps.
The next day, a talus, or ankle bone, was unearthed a few inches below the base of the concrete under the flagstone floor of the church. A metatarsal — a middle foot bone — and distal phalange, or toe bone, also were found in that spot.
“At the present time, information is lacking regarding the number of individuals that are represented by these remains, and the age and sex of the individuals represented,” the report states.
On Sept. 23, two human teeth and metacarpal bones from a human hand were found, along with 10 to 15 other human bone fragments, according to the Raba Kistner report. Those items were stored in the Alamo collections vault. On Sept. 24, a rib bone, two finger bones, part of a vertebra and other bone fragments were found and stored in the vault.
Vásquez said a hearing before Chief U.S. District Judge Orlando L. Garcia is expected as early as midNovember. Defendants in the lawsuit are Alamo Trust Inc., Alamo CEO Douglass W. McDonald, the Land Office, Land Commissioner George P. Bush, the historical commission and the city. The historical commission has filed a motion to dismiss the group’s lawsuit.
The San Antonio City Council is expected to discuss the lawsuit and discovery of remains Thursday.
During an update one year after the council approved key components of the project, McDonald told a council committee the project will invigorate a large area of downtown and remains on track for a grand opening on March 1, 2024.
“This is one of the most transformational projects in the nation today,” he said.
By Thanksgiving, the Land Office plans to replace curbs in the plaza with slopes to eliminate trip hazards. McDonald said he hopes by December to have results of a study on the feasibility of incorporating the state-owned Crockett, Palace and Woolworth buildings into the museum design.
City Council members Rebecca Viagran and Shirley Gonzales have raised concerns about lack of communication between the Alamo and the city, particularly over temporary fences placed in the Alamo this summer for installation of safety bollards.
Viagran said her office fielded calls from the public about fences and signage going up “without the proper communication to us.” McDonald said the Alamo has put out a weekly update since July to council members, business and other stakeholders.
“We want you all to be good neighbors to everyone in and around the area,” Viagran told McDonald.
Gonzales said she was “very concerned” that donors might unduly influence contents of the museum. In addition to the $125 million committed by the state and $38 million by the city for the project, the nonprofit Alamo Endowment plans to privately raise at least $150 million for the museum after a design for it is approved.
McDonald assured council members that the endowment and its subsidiary, the Alamo Trust, which oversees daily operations, are “fully committed” to telling the story of “everyone over the 300 years of history who lived, who fought, who died and is buried on that site.”
Because of the pending litigation, officials have not commented on the discovery of the human remains. But they have said the project is adhering to best practices.
Vásquez said the project is not including known descendants of Native Americans, Spaniards and others buried at the Alamo and in or around the plaza because officials do not want to deal with an “interested party” under the Health and Safety Code.
“It scares them, because that’s more delay,” he said.