Posted on 07/21/2004 6:59:22 AM PDT by blam
New wrangle over Kennewick bones
By Paul Rincon
BBC News Online science staff
The remains could reveal secrets of the settlement of the Americas
The legal battle over the ancient bones of Kennewick Man has been won by the scientists, but they now face a new wrangle over access to the remains. The 9,300-year-old skeleton is among the most complete specimens of its period known from the Americas.
Four Native American tribes that sought to re-bury the bones have announced they will not be taking their fight to the US Supreme Court.
But they still regard the skeleton as an ancestor and call it "ancient one".
" We feel that they are improperly interjecting themselves into the purpose for which we can study the skeleton and the types of studies that would be appropriate to achieve the objectives."
Alan L Schneider, atttorney
The Nez Perce, Umatilla, Yakama and Colville tribes filed a claim to the skeleton shortly after it was unearthed on 31 July, 1996, on a wide bank of the Columbia river at Kennewick in Washington State.
However, they were quickly challenged by scientists who said the skeleton could provide valuable information about the early settling of the Americas.
In February, the coalition of tribes lost their legal fight in the federal courts to scientists who want to study the remains.
The San Francisco-based Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that it was impossible to establish a relationship between the Indian tribes and "Kennewick Man".
An attempt to have the decision reviewed by a panel of judges was also rejected.
The defendants had the option to continue the fight in the US Supreme Court. But neither the tribes nor the US Justice Department filed an appeal to America's highest court by the Monday deadline.
However, legal representatives for the scientists are still locked in discussions with the US Justice Department over what the researchers are allowed to do with the bones.
'Condition concern'
Attorney for the scientists Alan L Schneider told BBC News Online: "We feel that they are improperly interjecting themselves into the purpose for which we can study the skeleton and the types of studies that would be appropriate to achieve the objectives."
The government has said that it would not permit any chemical or invasive testing on the bones. This would scupper any further attempts to obtain DNA samples from Kennewick Man.
The discussions are also likely to cover the question of how access to the remains is controlled.
"They're saying you have to restrict your studies and only a couple of people can go in and look at it and that sort of thing," Professor Robson Bonnichsen, one of the lead scientists, told BBC News Online.
The plaintiffs are also concerned by suggestions the bones may have deteriorated in the eight years since they was pulled from the sediment.
"The government has now come up with all kinds of concerns - that the skeleton is in such poor condition. The condition's changed under their watch because everyone said it was in great condition when it came in," explained Professor Bonnichsen.
"We know that the number of pieces of skeleton have grown since they've been there lying in the cabinet," he added.
Three tribes decided not to appeal the case before the weekend. The Umatilla held out to the deadline, but said in a statement on Monday that it would not proceed with the case any further.
"The decision was based on the availability of financial resources, the uncertainty of whether the Supreme Court would even hear the case, and the risk that an unfavourable Court decision could become law," the statement read.
It added that the Umatilla's board of trustees would begin working with other Native American tribes on a strategy to amend the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (Nagpra), the law enacted in 1990 to protect tribal burials.
"Nagpra needs to be strengthened so that it fulfils Congress' original intent, which was to protect tribal burials and return sacred items to the tribes," said Armand Minthorn, Umatilla board of trustees member.
The bones of Kennewick Man are currently held at the Burke Museum in Seattle.
What about 9,400 year old Spirit Cave Man...The oldest mummy in the Americas?
GGG Ping.
Pre-Columbian bump.
Wasn't the real reason for the battle AGAINST the scientist that this appears to be the skeleton of a CAUCASIAN and not a mongolian (Amer Indian origins)?
I went to high school with the guys that found Kennewick man. They were drunk and trying to sneak into the hydroplane races when they found him.
The truth is outing and they can't stand it.
DNA tests must be performed to determine if the tribes even have jurisdiction.
Their greatest fear, of course, is that it will be determined that they do not.
But the bones of Kennewick Man are no more your ancestors' than bones in Churchyards in Olde England. What strengthening of the law will allow a tribe to posses remains determined not to be of that tribe, or any living Native Americans? Will your new law prevent discovery of this? Simply claim any remain found as yours, simply because they're found on your ancestral lands? Was that truly Congress's intent? I doubt it.
The fight over Kennewick man is over, in regards to NAGPRA. He is NOT your ancestor. Thus neither the law, nor its intent, were violated.
Kennewick Man (Encounter With An Ancestor)
"The man lacks definitive characteristics of the classic mongoloid stock to which modern Native Americans belong. The skull is dolichocranic (cranial index 73.8) rather than brachycranic, the face narrow and prognathous rather than broad and flat. Cheek bones recede slightly and lack an inferior zygomatic projection; the lower rim of the orbit is even with the upper. Other features are a long, broad nose that projects markedly from the face and high, round orbits. The mandible is v-shaped,with a pronounced, deep chin. Many of these characteristics are definitive of modern-day caucasoid peoples, while others, such as the orbits are typical of neither race. Dental characteristics fit Turner's (1983) Sundadont pattern, indicating possible relationship to south Asian peoples."
My guess is that what the tribes will want is a presumption written into law that any remains dating to before Europeans settled into the U.S. are those of existing tribes and thus must be turned over to them. Up to this point, the burden has been on the Native Americans to prove that a given set of remains are related to them. That couldn't be done in this case. A change as I outline above will put the burden on non-Native Americans to prove that the remains are NOT those of ancestors of Native American tribes, while simultaneously taking away from them their ability to use the methods that they would need to establish such proof.
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Kennewick Man Bump
Hmmmmm....
The Justice Dept. lost in court, but they're still wasting taxpayers' money on this?
Sounds like it's time for Ashcroft to toss somebody's butt out onto the street.
What makes this troubling to some is that there is a mythology that only Europeans conquer and murder but the archaeological record shows otherwise. It's pretty standard human behavior around the world and the noble and peaceful savage is a myth.
The tribes should first have to prove that the remains are actually those of a "native American" before being able to lay claim to anything.
The bones of Kennewick Man are currently held at the Burke Museum in Seattle.
Someone needs to steal those bones, run the damn tests and get it over with. This whole thing has gone beyond being ridiculous.
Well duh!
The idea was invented in france you know and promoted by fops who wouldn't survive a season in the Americas. They were secretly envious of those who could so they turned us into fluffy sweet bunnies.
It is a toss up over whither this theory or the murderous blood thirsty animal who of course deserved to be crushed annoys me more.
Of course now we have two sides with emotional, political and monetary investment in proving their "story" right. Foolishly they think that one outcome or the other will change life as they know it. It won't. But they are standing in the way of the rest of us learning things.
One needs to be careful when playing the "My people where here first!" game.
One also needs to be careful with "who was here second." I doubt there were migration per say from "Europe" but a splitting up of a group where one goes west and ends up in Europe and one smaller group goes east and ends up in China and the Americas, that is quite possible.
For pete's sake, as long as we are not talking the destruction of the bones let them be tested.
One needs to be careful when playing the "My people where here first!" game
I personally don't care who got where - but there is a tribe in Argentina or Chile in the hills that is not mongoloid and is traceable back around 10k years up through South/Central America
I always figured a polynesian background for the original ancestors - the true Incas (royalty) were near 6 foot tall - but the Spanish Conquistadores killed everyone over 5 foot tall. That left the current central/south american indian
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