Too Many Unknowns

John Shore, of Reno County, while engaged in picking up bones in the vicinity of the head of the nine cottonwoods, picked up the skeleton of a man. It was complete with the exception of the skull. The bones were all very large, the hip bone in particular, it measuring near two feet in length. They were piled on the wagon with the others, and all carried away to spread on the impoverished hills of the east. The former occupant of the trauma is supposed to have been an Indian. - Medicine Lodge Mail

The Hutchinson News 2/20/1879

This little article made me sad. The remains of an unknown man sent to an unknown place. Not even buried but tossed to the barren hills with those of animals.
 
It was common in the early days of this area for people to collect buffalo bones. In an article from 1873 they were sold for $3 a ton and shipped east where they were ground into bone phosphates.