Posted on 07/11/2005 11:48:33 AM PDT by jazzo
SEATTLE - Cloistered around padded tables, scientists from around the country have been peering through microscopes and measuring bone fragments trying to unearth the history of an ancient skeleton found along the Columbia River.
Researchers on Sunday offered details of their first comprehensive study of the 9,000-year-old Kennewick Man, one of the oldest and most complete skeletons ever found in North America.
The team of anthropologists, geochemists and data analysts have been busy assembling the skeleton's more than 300 bones and bone fragments at the University of Washington's Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture, where the remains have been since 1998.
"This individual's biography is written in his bones," said Dr. Hugh Berryman, a forensic anthropologist from Middle Tennessee State University. "This is a window into the past."
Scientists have been cataloguing some previously unidentified pieces and reevaluating others. They've also been measuring remains, examining cracks and breaks in the bones and studying various discoloration in an attempt to put Kennewick Man's past together.
Likening it to a Rembrandt, Berryman said scientists early on knew the skeleton had much to offer because of its age and completeness.
"I'm very interested in that skull," Berryman said as he pointed to ice-blue translucent plastic models of a skull and pelvis, sitting atop a boardroom table at the University Towers hotel near the university.
"There appears to be some European-type facial features." That, he said, could suggest there were other migrations of people other than those strictly out of Asia.
Certain skull measurements, including the shorter face and less width across the cheekbones, don't match that traditionally associated with Native American characteristics, said Dr. Douglas W. Owsley, a forensic anthropologist with the National Museum of Natural History at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.
Those observations have been part of the nine-year legal battle between researchers and Northwest Indian tribes.
After the skeleton was found by two college students along the banks of the Columbia in 1996, the Umatilla, Yakama, Nez Perce and Colville tribes wanted the bones reburied without scientific study. They claimed they were entitled to the bones under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers owned the land where the remains were found and was set to relinquish the bones. But scientists sued for a chance to study the remains.
Last year a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, agreeing with an earlier decision by a federal judge in Portland, Ore., ruled there was no link between the skeleton and the tribes.
The taphonomic, or forensic, study scientists will perform during their 10-day examination will help determine the effects that weather and animals had on Kennewick Man's remains after death. Ultimately, they'll focus on identifying his origins, and how he lived and died.
Models of the skull and pelvis, which has a projectile — perhaps a spearhead — embedded in a hip, will be used to construct permanent cast to be used for additional research and to minimize impact to the actual skeleton.
Later, researchers will be analyzing samples taken from fragments of the leg during government studies in 1999 and 2000.
No public viewing of the remains is yet planned by the Army Corps.
I smell casino competition!
It'll be interesting to see how the PC crowd handles Kennewick Man, caucasian as he apparently was. I'm betting on the whole thing getting buried. Can't upset the applecart on the racial spoils system at this late date, now can we?
Nope, indians wanted to dump the body. Notice in the text they believe him to be of european decent and over 9,000 years old making the "white man" here long before the indians which would take away the money the fed gov gives in indians annually.
Casino rights for Euro-Americans!
That's what the judge said, more or less.
Still, 9,000 years ago you still had European type people in many parts of Asia, as, of course, you do today.
So, now it looks like the "Native Americans" may have been white folks who were violently disposessed from their land by marauding Asian hordes.
Every group pick there date in history then justifies their position regardless of what its history is before that or what else was going on in the world.
Look at Mexico saying texas and california are part of mexico, look that muslims saying spain is there's.
Sadly we have politicans that listen to them.
A question for you ~ since the US government never signed a treaty with Kennwick Man's nation, but did with many of the Indian tribes, why would the US government's obligation to adhere to treaties evaporate?
Somebody, somewhere must be filing a reparations claim over this.
Valid point, no tribe would lose the warm fuzzy right to operate outside the laws of the land - their status as "nations" would remain.
What they would lose is their claim to being "first americans" with supposed rights to the continent.
It might also have some similar impact on La Ratza - at least north of wherever the Aztecs ceased killing off the people who came before them. ompetition.
I would say you need to ask Andrew Jackson (a democrat) since I assume you are discussing the trail of tears also, you need to discuss if those treaties were constitutional as was never done.
The issue is should the government take someone and give to someone else based on un-truths and political corectness.
You are arguing on the basis of scientific evidence. The Indian tribes in question don't care about science. They have oral traditions that their tribes have always been where they are now. It's basically a kind of religious belief on their part, so it's a question of science vs. religion, like in the Scopes trial. The same sort of people who ridicule fundamentalists for rejecting scientific theory because of the Bible have no problem with Indians' religious beliefs overruling science.
"It'll be interesting to see how the PC crowd handles Kennewick Man, caucasian as he apparently was."
My understanding is that DNA analysis showed that Kenny was not closely related to Indians or Caucasians. He belonged to a distinct group that is no longer in existance (probably wiped out by the peace-loving redskins). He may have looked like a white guy, but that was coincidental.
http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/journey/
There is nothing "coincidental" about genetics. Not only can it be determined if he was Causasian through genetic testing (if genetic material exists), but it can also be determined if he was Caucasian from an analysis of the remains.
"There is nothing "coincidental" about genetics. Not only can it be determined if he was Causasian through genetic testing (if genetic material exists), but it can also be determined if he was Caucasian from an analysis of the remains."
Did you even read my post? Genetic analysis was done and showed he was not closely related to any existing race.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.