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Construction on the southern leg of Edmonton's Light Rail Transit system came to a halt on January 4th, 2008 when human remains were discovered by workers installing a sewer line.

Excavation was taking place near 43rd Avenue and 111th Street when parts of a decayed wooden box were unearthed about five feet below the surface.

Inside the box were human bones.

Police were called and staff from the medical examiner's office were brought in.

"The remains there look fairly old – there's bones, there appears to be a coffin – there's wood that's deteriorated down there – and there's a silver handle that we can see," Insp. Terry Rocchio told media at the scene.

After a cursory inspection at the site it was determined the remains were "historical" in nature.

"Our involvement is over with this file," a police spokesman later said. "It's not criminal."

The site contained evidence of a proper burial, he added. The age and sex of the remains have yet to be determined.

Officials said they don't have reason to believe any other remains were buried near the site.

A few blocks south of the Whitemud Freeway, the area was thought to be farmland until residential development took place in the early 1960s.

At first it was reported that work at the site would be suspended until further word from the medical examiner but on January 6th it was announced that construction around a cordoned-off 25-square-metre area could continue.

"We have been advised we can resume on Monday morning [January 7th] by the medical examiner," said Wayne Mandryk, the city's manager of transit projects.

The site is part of the South LRT expansion that is set to open in 2010.

However, news of the resumption of construction at the site didn't sit well with native activist Gerald Delorme.

In a story carried by the Edmonton Sun, Delorme said he wanted LRT expansion to stop and that found human remains likely belonged to one of his ancestors.

"I want to see that area investigated fully," he said. "Why do our ancestors have to have roads built over them, why do they have to have power plants built over them?"

Delorme told the Sun authorities have a moral obligation to determine if any other bodies are buried in the area, and the decision to resume construction reflected the city's attempts to minimize the implications of the discovery and prevent cost increases due to delays in the project.

"It's not like the city doesn't know there are bodies buried there," he said.

Delorme has represented families in the establishment of the Rossdale monument at 105th Street and River Road in August 2007 to honour the dead buried there over a century ago.

"We were pushed out of the area, and are trying to regain information about it now," he said. "But we know for a fact people are buried there."

"It's like our ancestors are calling out to us," he said. "And we have to listen."

Delorme has described himself as a member of the Edmonton Stragglers, a group of Cree natives associated with the Papaschase, who he said lost their band status and control over much of their land in present-day south Edmonton at the end of the 19th century.

Delorme says regardless of the current legal status or ownership of that land, the city has a moral duty to look further into the matter.

The Edmonton Sun put the question of halting construction on an online poll.

The one-day voluntary poll allowed only one response per computer.

630 CHED posed a similar question on their online poll.

There was no indication of how many voted on the one-day voluntary poll which allowed only one response per computer.

On January 7th, 2008 the medical examiner's office announced a forensic anthropologist would be investigating the nature of the remains.

LRT construction resumed outside the fenced-off area.

Transit manager Wayne Mandryk said that an archeologist would be on hand to check for human remains when work continues inside the site.

"We wanted to do some investigation about is there possibly any other remains around that site or burials that had taken place," Mandryk explained.

The presence of the archeologist was "erring on the side of caution, so that, should any further remains be discovered, they will be handled with dignity. Regardless of the ancestry of these remains, the city is respectful of the history and meaning of the area."

Mandryk said provincial officials are researching the area in an effort to determine who might have been buried there.

It was also revealed there was a shoe along with the bones in the casket.

Unless circumstances dictate otherwise, the archeologist's scrutiny would be limited to the stretch from Whitemud Drive south to Harry Ainlay High School with the rest of the project unaffected.

The top six feet of each new excavation would be closely monitored by the archeologist, Mandryk said.

The archeologist was expected to be onsite within a few days.

News of the city halting construction until an archeologist was hired pleased native interests.

"I'm so glad to hear that," said Joyce Bruneau, a band councillor with the Papaschase First Nation. The band has claimed the area as its historical land and feared the remains might belong to one of their ancestors.

"Because there may be other bodies around, they should be very careful when they're excavating," Bruneau told the Sun.

The paper reported that early indications suggested the body was buried possibly between 1890 and 1920. This was at least a few years after the Papaschase people were removed from the area, with their reserve sold off to private interests.

According to the Sun, the Papaschase First Nation occupied a large portion of southwest Edmonton, but descendents claim the federal government forced the band to dissolve through a series of manoeuvres beginning in 1880, mostly by making them members of other bands with reserves of their own.

In February 2008, descendents of the Papaschase were to apply to the Supreme Court of Canada for compensation and rights to a new reserve somewhere outside of Edmonton.

Bruneau said geneological studies indicate that the band has about 5,000 direct descendents.

deadmonton 2008 - other police matters - human remains found at LRT site