The Yaquis of Mexico and the U.S. reburied 12 sets of remains in a ceremony in Mexico on Monday.

The ancestors were the victims of a 1902 massacre in Mexico. Government troops killed about 150 men, women and children as part of a brutal campaign against the Yaqui people, some of whom fled to Arizona and became recognized as the Pascua Yaqui Tribe.

The remains ended up in the collection of the American Museum of Natural History in New York. The Pascua Yaqui Tribe sought them under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. The Mexican government also got involved on behalf of the Yaquis who still live there.

"That is why the warriors' role is important, because when we make territorial claims, it is because Yaqui blood was spilled there," Mexican Yaqui elder Ernesto Arguelles told the Associated Press. "This is the first opportunity we have had to stop and mourn."

The Yaquis in Arizona held a ceremony for the remains before they were reburied in Mexico.

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Mexico Indian remains returned from NY for burial (AP 11/17)