Havasupai Indian tribal members filed a $25 million lawsuit against the University, the Arizona Board of Regents and three professors.
Fifty-two tribal members helped file the suit, based on an independent investigation alleging that more than 400 blood samples studied by three ASU researchers were used for studies beyond the stated purpose of learning about tribal diabetes.
Instead, the lawsuit said, the samples also were used for research on inbreeding, schizophrenia and ancient Native American migration patterns, the Arizona Daily Sun newspaper in Flagstaff reported Saturday.
The suit was filed in Coconino County Superior Court on Friday.
The Havasupai tribal leaders said such research is disrespectful to their culture.
The tribe hired prominent tribal lawyer Robert Lyttle to defend its cause, the Daily Sun reported.
ASU anthropology professor John Martin and Therese Markow, a UA ecology and evolutionary biology professor and the director of UA's Center for Insect Science, initiated the diabetes study with the tribe in 1989.
Both Martin and Markow are named in the suit and were professors at ASU at the time of the study.
Markow said she didn't know the lawsuit had been filed, and that she was currently "out of the country" and was unable to comment.
Daniel Benyshek aided in the collection and study of the blood samples, according to the Daily Sun.
Benyshek is now an anthropological and cultural studies assistant professor at University of Nevada-Las Vegas. His Web site at UNLV indicates that he earned his doctorate in anthropology at ASU in 2001.
ASU spokesman Keith Jennings said he did not know anything about the lawsuit on Saturday.
Coconino County officials and professors named in the suit could not be reached for comment over the weekend.
Reach the reporter at nicole.saidi@asu.edu.
