Kennewick Man has held onto his secrets for more than 9,000 years and now, finally, scientists will get a chance to be his voice.
This week, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals pushed the truths resting within the bones at the Burke Museum closer to the light with its decision that scientists can study them. The appeals court affirmed a lower-court decision that the Interior Department erred in its decision to give the bones to the Native American tribes that claim them as those of an ancestor. The government might appeal to the Supreme Court.
But the 9th Circuit's ruling explicitly concludes there is no evidence of a genetic or cultural link between Kennewick Man and the modern-day tribes. Former Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt ruled the remains found on federal property should be given to the tribes under the federal repatriation law because the bones predated Columbus' 1492 landing in North America. The tribes, who want to bury the remains, argued Kennewick Man was their ancestor because their oral histories contained no migration stories.
But eight prominent scientists sued for the right to study Kennewick Man and shed light on the peopling of the Americas. Limited studies concluded the remains more closely resemble modern-day people in Polynesia or the Ainu of Japan than they do Native Americans. Experts say they also resemble those of other ancient bones found elsewhere in the Americas far from the Columbia River Basin and, some believe, a set of 25,000-year-old bones in China.
The court's rejection of the pre-Columbian rule has implications for the study of other ancient remains, including those of Pan Era Woman, a set of 12,000-year-old remains found on federal property in Texas. Kennewick Man is holding the door open so other ancient remains aren't buried with their secrets.
The Native American Graves and Repatriation Act is a good law designed to return remains and artifacts to tribes with which actual connections can be established. But as science suggested and a federal judge and appeals court concluded — Kennewick Man is in a different category.
<strike>He</strike> I belongs to all of us.
I speak.
Moderators: AArdvark, Ice Cream Jonsey