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Kennewick Man To Be Studied In Seattle
TriCity Herald ^ | 6-20-2005 | Anna King

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.


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: archaeology; ggg; godsgravesglyphs; history; kennewick; kennewickman; man; mccain; mctraitor; meadowcroft; seattle; studied
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POS McCain is at it again!!!
1 posted on 06/20/2005 9:04:21 PM PDT by blam
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To: SunkenCiv

GGG Ping.


2 posted on 06/20/2005 9:04:56 PM PDT by blam
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To: blam

Damn. Is there ANYTHING that nitwit doesn't have his hands involved in?!


3 posted on 06/20/2005 9:07:43 PM PDT by Soul Seeker
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To: blam


This man is more dangerous than the Democommies, at least we know they're the enemy. Many naive Republicans think McAsshat is someone "great" just because he's got an (R) next to his name. One has to wonder how effective the North Vietnamese propaganda was on this man....
4 posted on 06/20/2005 9:09:16 PM PDT by Stellar Dendrite (Saddam: $25k to suicide bombers = BAD --- Bush: 50 mil to terrorist scum = "GOOD")
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To: blam
My bro-in-law worked at the Smithsonian. Among other things repatriated to the Indians were scalps taken with blond female hair.
5 posted on 06/20/2005 9:11:49 PM PDT by Last Dakotan
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To: Stellar Dendrite
Senator McCainiac


6 posted on 06/20/2005 9:15:02 PM PDT by Travis McGee (----- www.EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com -----)
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To: blam
POS McCain is at it again!!!

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.

7 posted on 06/20/2005 9:16:05 PM PDT by Hank Rearden (Never allow anyone who could only get a government job attempt to tell you how to run your life.)
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To: blam
The Indians are scared spitless that Kennewick Man will be the beginning of a lengthy unravelling of their claims to being the "true" Americans. Witness the bulldozing and complete destruction of the site where the remains were found, and their current demands to abort the study of this skeleton.

There will be other Kennewick Men, and competing casinos, eventually.

8 posted on 06/20/2005 9:18:24 PM PDT by Hank Rearden (Never allow anyone who could only get a government job attempt to tell you how to run your life.)
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To: Stellar Dendrite

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.


9 posted on 06/20/2005 9:20:49 PM PDT by Soul Seeker
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To: blam

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.


10 posted on 06/20/2005 9:21:54 PM PDT by Eva
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To: blam

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.


11 posted on 06/20/2005 9:25:29 PM PDT by jocon307 (Can we close the border NOW?)
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To: Hank Rearden

Hank! Hank!

Ding! Ding! Ding! We have a winnah!

You are SO damn right; that's why they have been fighting this for YEARS!


12 posted on 06/20/2005 9:26:57 PM PDT by Howlin
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To: Eva

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.


13 posted on 06/20/2005 10:00:16 PM PDT by Soul Seeker
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To: blam
Kennewick Man to be studied in Seattle

Jim McDermott is going to be studied?

14 posted on 06/20/2005 10:51:13 PM PDT by taxesareforever (Government is running amuck)
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To: blam
The bones appear Caucasian. That's what all of this is about.

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.

15 posted on 06/21/2005 1:26:32 AM PDT by Reactionary
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To: Reactionary

9,400 Year Old Spirit Cave Man, The Oldest Mummy Ever Discovered In The Americas

16 posted on 06/21/2005 5:45:51 AM PDT by blam
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To: Soul Seeker

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.)


17 posted on 06/21/2005 7:52:59 AM PDT by Eva
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To: Eva

If push comes to shove, I'd vote for Rudy.


18 posted on 06/21/2005 8:37:17 AM PDT by blam
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To: blam

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.


19 posted on 06/21/2005 8:39:19 AM PDT by Eva
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To: blam
Thanks Blam. As seems obvious, McCain is undermining his political party by participating in this kind of crap. Does he seriously expect anyone in the country -- from the other side of the aisle -- to remember this? Even people with tribal affiliations elsewhere in the country aren't going to say, "oh, let's vote for the local Republican candidate" because of McCain's amendment.

The doctors, professors, and other scholars are going to be against it, but I doubt that they'll vote in favor of the local candidate either, once they remember what party McCain is from. There isn't enough public exposure of this action.

One way to get such exposure is to propose another amendment -- one that cuts funding for all archaeological projects on US soil. THAT would call attention to it. The rationale for the amendment would be that there's no point in digging if the finds can't be recorded and analyzed, ergo, it's a waste of money.

Obviously I'm not in favor of either amendment, but supporters of the McCain amendment are in fact advocating just that, and need to be called on it in a public way.
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)

20 posted on 06/21/2005 9:48:48 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (FR profiled updated Tuesday, May 10, 2005. Fewer graphics, faster loading.)
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