Posted on 06/20/2005 9:04:20 PM PDT by blam
Kennewick Man to be studied in Seattle
This story was published Monday, June 20th, 2005
By Anna King, Herald staff writer
Scientists say they are wrapping up final arrangements to study Kennewick Man's remains in early July at University of Washington's Burke Museum in Seattle.
The 9,400-year-old skeleton found along the banks of the Columbia River in 1996 has been the focus of a bitter nine-year court battle between the federal government, Mid-Columbia Native American tribes that claim the bones as their ancestor and the scientists who want to study the remains.
Scientists from around the country plan to convene in Seattle for about two weeks early next month to conduct the research, said Alan Schneider, Portland-based attorney for the scientists.
The study potentially could be halted if the tribes asked for a stay, but they haven't yet, Schneider said. But further studies of Kennewick Man might be stopped if a bill proposed by U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., passes and changes the wording of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act.
The senator has introduced a two-word amendment that would let federally recognized tribes demand the return of remains, even if they can't prove a link to a modern tribe.
"Right now skeletal remains that are culturally unaffiliated are being given to tribes and reburied," Schneider said. "If the McCain amendment goes through, we are very concerned about what would become of Kennewick Man and all of these other skeletal remains that are so different from present day Native Americans."
But the bill won't be approved in time to affect this summer's study, he added.
Audie Huber, inter-govermental affairs manager for the Umatilla Reservation's Department of Natural Resources, said that the Umatilla, Yakama and Nez Pierce tribes had filed an appeal with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The tribes hope to have some say in what happens to the remains in the future, he said.
"The desire was to get them back in the ground," Huber said. He added that the tribes' appeal likely won't affect the plaintiff scientist's study this summer.
In July, government scientists plan to look the skeleton over and assess any changes in the bones since their last study, he said. Then the scientists will begin their work.
First, the team would work to catalogue and reconstruct the entire skeleton, Schneider said. They wouldn't glue or alter the bones in any way but would put them in anatomical order, he said.
Then they would try to reconstruct what has happened to the skeleton from the time Kennewick Man died until now.
Scientists plan to do a CAT scan of Kennewick Man's skull and hip bone with its imbedded arrowhead. The computer image would be used to mold a very accurate plastic replica of the skull.
The replica would be taken back to the Smithsonian Museum and recast in a more durable material that would be measured and hand painted to resemble the original as closely as possible.
Schneider said one replica would be kept at the Burke and another at the Smithsonian.
"When other researches come into Burke they won't have to handle the skull as much," he said. "They won't have to take all their measurements off the original anymore."
The replica also serves a precaution in case the bones are returned to the tribes later, Schneider said.
Scientists who want to do more specific measurements and study on Kennewick Man's teeth, hand and foot bones likely would conduct their studies this fall. That is if McCain's bill doesn't pass.
Schneider said the scientists are concerned that if the bones are returned to the tribes, scientists won't be able to study them with new technologies and techniques that may develop in the future.
James Chatters, the Richland archaeologist who recovered many of Kennewick Man's bones from the riverbank when they were first discovered, said he is relieved the study will finally happen. Chatters said he plans to answer the other scientists' questions about what he saw when he originally found the bones and help describe the site where the remains were discovered.
"We're past some of the politics and finally going to learn some things," he said.
Kennewick Man's remains are stored at the Burke Museum.
GGG Ping.
Damn. Is there ANYTHING that nitwit doesn't have his hands involved in?!
I'm rooting hard, very hard, for The Lump but it's taking 'way too long and much damage is being done in the interim.
There will be other Kennewick Men, and competing casinos, eventually.
Put a "D" by his name (arguably what he is) and reaction would be quite different.
This man is no different than Hillary, he's just smarter.
McCain has been very busy trying to round up a Clintonesque coalition of minority groups. The only thing that I can figure is that McCain either doesn't plan to run as a Republican or that he can persuade a lot of Democrats to cross over in the primary. He sure won't get the conservative vote.
What is wrong with him? What is wrong with the Indians for that matter? I can understand not wanting your great-grandparents' graves treated as an archeological dig, I really can. But Kennewick man is hardly in that class.
What gets to me is the mumbo-jumbo that gets said, the Indian creation myths, and how "that truth" forbids studying these ancient bones. And the liberal media eats it up. But let some Christian start talking "creationism" and they are ready to put them in the gulag. (Yes, I said gulag on purpose).
Why, WHY, are the richest and best educated of our civilization ready to sell us all down the river in a thrall to primative cultures at their most primative, ignorant, violent and destructive?
I watched Mutiny on the Bounty (mel gibson version, yes!) last night and all I can say is Bligh, Cook, et al must be rolling in their graves.
Hank! Hank!
Ding! Ding! Ding! We have a winnah!
You are SO damn right; that's why they have been fighting this for YEARS!
Mccain thinks he can summon up enough Dems and Indy's and RINO's to vote for him in the primaries. His victories in 2000 were in states that mostly allowed open voting. Too bad there weren't enough of them to actually win the nomination. All he is succeeding in doing is creating an ABM clique that will unite to make sure he loses.
meanwhile the groups he thinks will lead him to victory are the same groups Hillary needs. So they'll be fighting over the same people, leaving the conservative block of Dems and Reps (far larger) open for the right candidate.
Jim McDermott is going to be studied?
The various Leftist groups that have erected the edifice of cultural guilt are bothered by that fact. They don't mind politicizing science if it suits their twisted cultural agenda.
9,400 Year Old Spirit Cave Man, The Oldest Mummy Ever Discovered In The Americas
An article in the WSJ, this morning, states that recent polls show John McCain and Rudi Guliani as the lead contenders for the Rep. nomination in 2008. The article said that both are better described as Mavericks than liberals, that Guliani is as resolute on terrorism as Churchill would have been and that McCain mixes social conservativism with media pleasing iconoclasm. (I guess the authors haven't been paying attention.)
If push comes to shove, I'd vote for Rudy.
I'd vote Rudy over McCain too. I think that Rudy Guliani is a what you see is what you get kind of guy, where McCain is all smoke and mirrors, mostly the mirrors.
Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on, off, or alter the "Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list --
Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
The GGG Digest -- Gods, Graves, Glyphs (alpha order)
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