DISCOVERY OF VILLAGE BURIES BUILDER'S DREAM.

Byline: Donna Horowitz San Francisco Examiner 

Damien Quinn expected to be comfortably settled with his family in their rehabilitated home by now - but the burial remains of as many as 100 Indians have thrown his plans into disarray.

All the contractor has to show for his work is a half-finished house, a lot of heartache and financial uncertainty.

The problems started last year when Quinn and his work crew discovered a Coast Miwok burial ground and village dating back 2,500 years - considered a significant archeological find.

Work came to a standstill and city and county officials, an archeologist and Miwoks converged on the property in Gerstle Park, located in an older, established part of San Rafael.

Now the property is in foreclosure, Quinn has sued to get out of the sale and the family's home seems a distant dream.

``Here we are, just a regular couple trying to get along,'' Quinn said in a recent interview. ``Now we are trashed. Our savings are gone, and nobody seems to care.''

Quinn, 30, who lives in San Francisco with his girlfriend, Mary Galvin, 33, and their 5-month-old son, Luke, had hoped to reconstruct the Victorian and turn it into a duplex. They planned to live in one unit and rent the other.

But he said the couple didn't have the money to remove as many as 100 Indian skeletons and rebury them elsewhere in a dignified manner, as required by state law.

``We've got $160,000 of our money invested in this house,'' Quinn said. ``The way it stands the bank is going to foreclose on us and we're going to lose everything. Unless we pay for removal of the remains, we can't construct.''

Although officials are sympathetic to the family's plight, nobody has come up with a solution.

Bob Pendoley, San Rafael's planning director, says the city requires a study when construction is proposed on or near an archeological site. The problem: The city had no records showing this was such a site or that any were in the neighborhood.

``It was a previously unknown Indian village,'' said Miley Holman, a consulting San Francisco archeologist called in by Miwoks to assess the situation. ``It stretches through a number of yards over there, so nobody knows how big it is.

Of Quinn, Holman said, ``He's the unlucky guy who bought part of an Indian village.''

Holman said he had recommended that Quinn redesign the project to avoid further grading, if possible. Otherwise, he predicted, Quinn would encounter more Indian remains.

Quinn, who was excavating the rear of the lot for parking spaces when he discovered the remains, said the size of the property wouldn't allow for any redesign.

The cost of removing the remains is in dispute. Quinn and his attorney say they heard Holman estimate it could cost $200,000. Holman says he believes it could cost much less - $20,000 to $30,000.

Quinn has sued the previous owner to rescind the sale. A mediation session involving various parties is scheduled for May 1.

Quinn, who emigrated from Ireland in 1985, says he has come to agree with Miwoks who say the site should be preserved and not disturbed further.

``We don't want to interfere with their remains,'' Quinn said. ``If somebody went and messed with my ancestors, I'd be (angry).

``It's not up to any old white contractor to pull them up out of the ground,'' Quinn said. ``It's their land. They were here long before I got here.''