Posted on 11/08/2007 6:24:59 AM PST by blam
Next Kennewick Man will need protection
Published Wednesday, November 7th, 2007
The court decision to allow scientists to study the ancient skeleton known as Kennewick Man has aided humankind's quest for knowledge.
Unfortunately, it also spawned a congressional effort to change federal law to keep science from learning anything about the next Kennewick Man.
U.S. Rep. Doc Hastings is trying to thwart the move with proposed legislation of his own. Good for him.
With so many unanswered questions about man's future, we've never had a greater need to understand our past.
The Kennewick Man ruling, upheld by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in 2004, went against Northwest Indian tribes, which hoped the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act would prevent scientific examination of the skeleton.
The court ruled Congress had intended NAGPRA to apply to remains only if a significant relationship could be shown to present-day tribes.
That's an appropriate interpretation of the law, one that protects the interests of science and still respects Indian culture.
Good riddance to archaeologists robbing the graves where the grandparents of contemporary Indians were buried.
And thank goodness for efforts to get human remains and cultural artifacts back to their original tribes.
But the Indians' claim to the 9,300-year-old Kennewick Man is based on the belief that no one other than tribal ancestors could have been in the Columbia Basin back then.
That can't be proved and may not be true.
Congress shouldn't base law on unproven assumptions about the ancient world. Too much is at stake.
Hastings' efforts to clarify that NAGPRA doesn't apply to human remains that can't be tied to modern tribes shouldn't be necessary.
In the past, Congress has ignored any efforts to change the act.
But now it's starting to look as if efforts to stop study of the next Kennewick Man will never go away.
Congress should adopt Hastings' proposal and clarify NAGPRA's limits.
Even those that occurred before that time usually highly little more than the killing of other nobles with the broad masses being fairly immune from battlefield deaths. That comes later after massproduction of steel becomes possible, and increases at a tremendous pace with the arrival of firearms. You can imagine what we can do with nukes.
Ain't gonna happen cous; too many political interests are at risk. Politicians don't care about anything except their own backsides.
Yeah. That guy.
BTW, the city the Mongols destroyed was BAGHDAD. Razed it to the ground. Killed everybody. The government in Baghdad had rejected the entreaties of the Mongol ambassadorial mission and then murdered them.
Yes, AlQaida in Iraq existed even then.
But not for long!
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.