Some U.S. military veterans are finding work helping sort through a massive government archaeological collection that has been neglected for decades.

The collection dates to the 1930s, when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers started building dozens of locks, dams and reservoirs, and the ground beneath them was excavated for archaeological treasures.

It's part of the corps' effort to find American Indian cultural items and return them to tribes or their descendants -- something all federal agencies must do under a 1990 law.