Daily News from New York, New York • 10

A long look to the past the others. "I don't think there are any coincidences in life. I think every had stood. The brass tacks that had formed an age-old lesson in Mr. Sankofa's coffin lid happened to have been stored in the African Burial Ground facility at The first of the mahogany boxes loaded into the horse-drawn hearse held the centuries-old remains of a man officially designated Burial 101, but nicknamed Mr.

Sankofa. The remains were the 101st of thing happens for a reason, Hollingsworth said. "I think there was definitely a reason why the bones were found." After a ceremony in the lobby to announce the return of the remains, Mr. Sankofa 6 World Trade Center. The horse-drawn hearse turned onto Du-ane and three of the four boxes were removed.

The fourth was Mr. fT!) MICHAEL 4f DALY luiTrh- rrmr1- former detective who had responded to the World Trade Center after the first plane hit. "It is passing through another sacred ground to come to this sacred ground," he said. Hollingsworth had in his wallet a business card from his last assignment as a detective before he retired in July. Detective Clifton L.

Hollingsworth, Jr. Detective Second Grade Weapons of Mass Destruction Grim lesson He can speak with sorrte authority on the dangers we all face if the lesson of the jrade Center is forgotten the wajy the burial ground was for so Icing, if we do fail to heed Mr. Sankofa's 92 tacks and look to the past to inform the future. "Not only is this a burial ground, but that should be looked upon as a sacred burial ground as well," Hollingsworth said. E-mail: mdafyeditnydailynewa.com ing slaves.

Hollingsworth and Weatherspoon still walked as a kind of honor guard, striding evenly in polished black shoes, black suits, white shirts and precisely knotted ties. "All of the heroes who have been honored on Broadway, and now after all these years for the bones of our ancestors to be honored that way," Hollingsworth later said. The moment needed no ticker tape. Proof of that was in the tears that welled in the eyes of those around him. "It really feels like the Canyon of Heroes," Hollingsworth said.

As the procession reached Liberty the band and the sound of the horses caused tourists to turn from the sun-splashed void where the World Trade Center and the three others were carried to a grassy area adjacent to the building where all 419 were to be reinterred yesterday. Some 200 others already lie here undisturbed. "Our ancestors wanted us to know this is our sacred ground," Hollingsworth said. Hollingsworth remained mindful that the procession had gone past where the twin towers had stood to reach this place on Reade St. He spoke both as an African-American and as a Sankofa.

He was in the front of the compartment beyond even HoUingsworth's long reach. Hollingsworth somehow managed to maintain perfect dignity as he clambered inside on all fours. His white gloved hands gently brought the box with him as he backed out. He and Weatherspoon and others then carried Mr. Sankofa and the three others into 290 Broadway, the 34-story federal building whose footprint had been the resting place for Sankofa and 419 to be disinterred after an excavation crew happened upon the African Burial Ground at the site of a new federal building in downtown Manhattan 12 years ago.

The nickname derives from a symbol formed with 92 iron tacks in the coffin lid. This self-embracing heart was an African symbol known as Sankofa. The meaning was a message that lay buried and forgotten for more than two centuries. "Look to the past to inform the future." The symbol and its accompanying message had been carved into the wooden box as Mr. Sankofa returned to the city on Friday morning after a dozen years of being studied at Howard University.

Mr. Sankofa and the remains of three others had been taken on a multicity tour before arriving by boat at the foot of Wall once the site of the city's slave market. The pallbearers who bore Mr. Sankofa to the black horse-drawn hearse included two retired New York City detectives, Clifton Hollingsworth and Graham Weathers poon. The box was a quarter the size of a standard coffin and it was joined by three others, containing the remains of a woman and two children, a boy and a girl.

A small band struck up "Just a Closer Walk With Thee" and led the way up Wall St. The hearse followed, with Hollingsworth and Weatherspoon walking solemnly on either side of the two black horses. Behind them came four horse-drawn wagons bearing neatly stacked boxes holding the 415 other remains that were to be reinterred. At Water the cortege turned right and then left again onto Pine St The clip-clop of the hooves echoed in the dark narrow lane as the procession passed Federal Hall, where the Bill of Rights was ratified. 'Conditions that kill'.

The slaves who had perished with no rights at all included Burial 39, who died at 6 years old, an age before the bones can easily be classed by gender. Circular fractures of the neck bones and enlarged muscle attachments indicate the child was forced to carry unconscionable burdens. Premature closure of the sutures in the skull were likely due to ferrying heavy loads on the head. The teeth and pitting of the eye orbits suggest infections, malnourishment and serious anemia. The chief anthropologist's conclusion was: "Living under conditions that ultimately kill." Burial 39, Mr, Sankofa and the others were now borne to the top of Pine St.

and onto Broadway by Trinity Church, which is reported to have been built us El- I I i1 CRAMWARGA Coffin containing remains of one of about 400 slaves is carried to African Burial Ground on Friday. 5 a 4(D) sllaues' ireiaiiiaisiis air iretaonetfl to hwM sate The ceremony capped a long struggle over the burial ground, where the remains of an estimated 20,000 Africans are buried over a 5-acre stretch near City Hall. Descendants of people buried there were unsuccessful in their attempts to stop construction of the federal tower. Nearly $20 million in federal funds was spent on the project in the 1990s, and the reburial was delayed several times. Many said they were pleased to see the slaves treated with the dignity they were not given in life, but others remembered the hard feelings created by the burial ground controversy.

"I was very disturbed 12 years ago when the remains were removed," said Stahmili Mapp, 52, of Brooklyn. "But you can still feel the ancestors here in spite of all this concrete." By JOSE MARTINEZ DAlty NEWS STAFF WRITER The skeletal remains of more than 400 slaves were returned yesterday to the lower Manhattan burial ground where they were discovered in 1991. Thousands of people gathered in Foley Square for a procession to the African Burial Ground on Duane where more than 300 hand-carved coffins were lowered into their final resting places. "It appears to me that the ancestors are pleased, said Howard Dodson, director of the reinterment project. "It probably took too long to do this." The coffins carried the remains of 419 blacks who were slaves in Colonial-era New York.

The remains were discovered 12 years ago during construction of a federal building at 290 Broadway. CM.