DNA testing and analysis will likely occur on human remains dating back more than a century that were found at a Fort Bend ISD construction site earlier this year, but questions linger as to who will pay the cost.

Community activists urged the Fort Bend Independent School District this summer to test the 95 human remains as construction continued on the future James Reese Career and Technical Center. The remains are believed to be those of African-American prisoners who were part of Texas’ notorious convict-leasing system, through which people were contracted out to perform cheap labor in the decades after slavery ended. Experts and community members said DNA testing and analysis could provide a better understanding of the experience of those buried at the site in Sugar Land.

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“DNA analysis will tie us to a living record,” said Reign Clark, cultural resources director for Goshawk Environmental Consulting, the firm hired to exhume the remains after their discovery. “There may actually be family stories where we can tell the story of what these people went through and what their families went through. That’s the truly rewarding part of this. There’s a benefit to science, a benefit to history, but there can also be a benefit to living people today.”

DNA and isotope analysis could provide information about eating habits, genetic heritage and even lineal descent, among other aspects. It also could potentially lead to the identification and notification of descendants. The estimated cost is around $170,000.

The Fort Bend ISD’s recent announcement that DNA analysis would be conducted follows a vote endorsing such a move by a local task force created to make decisions about the remains during a meeting last month.

The Texas Historical Commission this week wrote the school district’s lawyer to say it was pleased a task force had been created to make decisions about the reinterment and memorialization of the remains.

HEATED MEETING: Tense second meeting for cemetery task force in Sugar Land

“The THC has no authority over the ultimate decision as to whether or not destructive analysis is performed and takes no position on destructive testing of these remains,” the letter stated. “We had recommended that you gather as much input as possible from stakeholders and use the information to help inform your decision. It appears that the decision to conduct DNA analysis was unanimous among the stakeholders.”

Veronica Sopher, a spokeswoman for Fort Bend ISD, acknowledged there was some confusion because district officials at first believed the commission had legal authority to decide whether the DNA analysis would occur. Sopher said the school district was still looking to the commission for guidance on the testing and other issues.

“The Texas Historical Commission has the expertise and the documented protocols of what’s appropriate when you’re dealing with a historical matter like this,” Sopher said.

In a statement Thursday, the school district said it appreciates the commission’s guidance and noted that “it has been our commitment from the beginning to ensure compliance with all legal and permitting requirements pertaining to the exhumation of remains.”

Doug Brinkley, an assistant city manager for Sugar Land who has been overseeing the cemetery task force meetings, said discussions were ongoing to have a private party pay for the testing.

“We’re still working. It’s not an easy thing because we’re asking someone to donate their own private dollars,” Brinkley said Monday. “We’re actually on their timeline. We made a request and someone showed interest. We followed up with them and we haven’t had a response back yet.”

During the second meeting of the cemetery task force last month, members of National Black United Front held a rally outside to voice their frustrations and push for DNA testing. They marched and chanted with signs reading “Justice 4 Sugarland 95” and “DNA Testing 4 Sugar Land 95.”

Clark, the consultant, has described the remains as unique to the country and said that not proceeding with DNA analysis would be a “travesty.”

Catrina Whitley, bioarcheologist for Goshawk Environmental Consulting, said experts would need two molars and one incisor to complete both DNA and isotope analysis.

Five of those buried at the site have a rare genetic trait, causing two of their wrist bones to be fused together — something found in just one in every 16,000 individuals, according to Whitley.

Whitley said the genetic trait could mean that families were possibly incarcerated together, but there’s no way for experts to tell if the individuals are related without DNA analysis.

“It’s an opportunity for us to really delve into the past and really make connections to the present,” said Sopher. “It not only will give us historical context of where they came from, where they were raised..... but it also is a unique snapshot in time with a very unique group of people.”

Reginald Moore, a community activist who has long advocated for a nearby cemetery of graves tied to the former state prison at Sugar Land, said he is encouraged by recent developments. He had warned district officials that human remains would likely be found at the construction site.

Of the planned DNA testing, he said, “That means a lot to me, to know the ancestral individuals may also get some recognition.”

brooke.lewis@chron.com