NEW WORLD PALEO-INDIAN-—ROBERTS 415 
of an adult male and, as in the cases already discussed, the skull was 
of the long-headed variety with strong development of the brow 
ridges, and a broad, heavy jaw. The individual was undoubtedly an 
American Indian, but he differed from the recent Indians known to 
have occupied that particular region. 
Another Minnesota skeleton, the remains of a girl about 15 years 
of age, has been proposed as an example of the physical type of the 
Paleo-Indian living in west-central Minnesota in late Pleistocene 
times (Jenks, 1986). The matter of its antiquity has been questioned 
in some quarters, however, and there has been considerable contro- 
versy over its proper status. The remains were discovered by work- 
men repairing a stretch of highway in Otter Tail County when the 
grader blade, making its deepest cut in the middle of the roadbed, 
exposed fragments of a broken clam shell. Stopping to investigate, 
the workmen found the frontal of a human skull beneath the bits of 
shell and a short distance away a piece of what they thought to be 
bone but which later proved to be the greater part of an implement 
made from antler. The road boss interrupted work with the heavy 
equipment until the find could be uncovered and within the space of 
2 hours most of the skeleton had been removed. At the start several 
of the bones were damaged by the shovels being used in the digging. 
When they were discarded for small hand tools the results were bet- 
ter and most of the material was recovered in fairly good condition. 
The skull had been crushed by the weight of the grader wheel but had 
not actually been touched by it, nor had the grader blade come in con- 
tact with any of the other bones. A shell pendant found among the 
ribs and vertebrae probably had been worn suspended from the neck. 
During the progress of the disinterment a number of the men not 
participating in it watched the process, studying and discussing the 
nature of the surrounding earth. From their statements, and from 
the profiles made by the highway engineer prior to the original con- 
struction, it was concluded that there had been no break in the over- 
lying strata, and that the body had not been buried intentionally but 
had been covered by the deposition of silts around it after it had 
come to rest at that particular spot. The repairs on the highway 
were completed, and the bones were turned over to the University of 
Minnesota. After they had been studied it was evident that they 
exhibited a number of primitive characteristics and further exami- 
nation of the place where they were found was deemed advisable. 
On two different occasions traffic was diverted and the site reopened. 
These investigations demonstrated beyond question that the skeleton 
had come from that location. Fragments of bone were obtained that 
fit pieces recovered in the initial digging, and in addition animal and 
bird bones and many segments of turtle carapace were found. While 
