LOS ANGELES — The remains of some of America's earliest Chinese settlers, whose graves were discovered five years ago during construction of a light rail line, will soon be reburied in a cemetery that once denied them entry.

A memorial wall honoring the dead was dedicated Monday at a Los Angeles cemetery, where they will be re-interred beginning next month.

"This day is a long time in coming,'' Rep. Judy Chu, who represents the area in Congress, said at the ceremony at Evergreen Cemetery.

"It is so significant that those early immigrants who suffered so many indignities in life will now, through internment, not have to suffer indignities through death.''

The process comes after an exhaustive attempt by the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority to identify the century-old remains and locate their descendants.

It began after construction crews unearthed bones and artifacts in June 2005 while widening a road to make room for the Gold Line rail extension to East Los Angeles.

Archaeologists later found 174 burial sites, some dating as far back as the 1880s. A few had headstones with engravings in Chinese; others were unmarked; some contained artifacts such as opium pipes, teapots and jade jewelry; and some were empty.

Historians believe the site was once a potter's field, a cemetery for the poor that was lost to developments in the 1920s.

Many Chinese were buried there because they were not allowed to be buried among whites in the nearby Evergreen Cemetery.

The discriminatory practice was part of laws enacted in 19th century California prohibiting Chinese settlers, most of them who came to the West to dig for gold and build the railroads, from becoming citizens, owning property or marrying whites.