Tucson [Arizona] Citizen (newspaper), Saturday, August 11, 2001
Facts about Kennewick Man
* He was 45 to 50 years old at the time of death.
* He stood 5 feet 9 to 5 feet 10 inches tall and had a slender build.
* He had all his teeth except for two molars; teeth showed only light wear
* DNA testing showed he ate mostly fish
* He had at least six fractured ribs that had healed, and damage to his
left shoulder muscle
* A segment of stone projectile embedded in a pelvic bone -- a wound likely
sustained when he was a teen-ager
* Completeness of the skeleton indicates the body was placed in a grave
* His cranium is unlike that of any modern population, but is closest to
people of the South Pacific (Moriori, Easter Island), and the Ainu of Japan
Scientists tussle with U.S. over early North America
By Paul L. Allen
Citizen Staff Writer
Vance Haynes loves nothing better than a puzzle, and he's frustrated at not
being able to help solve a 9,500-year-old mystery known as Kennewick Man.
That's why he and seven other top-level scientists are suing the federal
government to gain access to the ancient skeletal remains discovered in
1996 in Washington state.
Haynes and colleagues believe the bones -- a nearly complete skeleton of a
slender, middle-aged man -- could radically change our view of the first
Americans.
Haynes, regents' professor emeritus of geoarchaeology at University of
Arizona, and the others are contesting a decision by Bruce Babbitt,
secretary of the interior under the Clinton administration and a former
governor of Arizona, to hand the remains to one or more Native American
groups for reburial.
When Haynes first heard about the issue, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
was about to transfer the remains to the Indians.
"My first thought was, well, they shouldn't do that until it's studied.
The study itself could help determine which tribe it should be repatriated
to," Haynes said.
"By studying it, we might be able to make a DNA connection to an existing
tribe," he added.
Haynes tried to share his concern in a letter to the corps.
"I never got an answer," he said.
While discussing the matter with a friend, Dennis Stanford, the head of
archaeology at the Smithsonian Institution, Haynes learned of the lawsuit.
Stanford invited him to join those suing. Haynes agreed.
Last month, another scientist suing with Haynes, C. Loring Brace of the
Museum of Anthropology at the University of Michigan, released results
of a new study that examined and measured nearly 10,000 ancient human
skulls collected from around the world.
The study indicated the first Americans were most closely related to the
Jomon, who lived in Japan thousands of years ago.
Evidence suggests the Jomon and a later group, the Ainu, crossed what now
is the Bering Strait about 15,000 years ago and migrated from Alaska to
the tip of South America.
The Jomon-Ainu were not the people who now live in Japan, Bruce said, but
had some characteristics of Europeans.
The study indicated that during the first migration, ice covered much of
the northern world, causing sea levels to drop several hundred feet,
opening land bridges from Alaska to Siberia.
A second migration occurred between 3,000 and 4,000 years ago, this time
by boat.
It involved people who were a mix of Chinese, Southeast Asian and
Mongolian, people who became what we know as the Eskimo and Aleut.
Some of these people migrated south to what would become the American
Southwest, evolving as Navajo and Apache.
Kennewick Man is one of more than a half-dozen of the earliest known
skeletal remains that pose a perplexing problem to a scientific community
that, with some exceptions, has accepted the premise that the earliest
settlers in North America were direct forebears of modern-day Native
Americans.
The problem is that Kennewick Man's cranium is distinctly unlike those of
Native Americans, and displays what archaeologists describe as "caucasoid"
characteristics.
That does not mean Kennewick Man was Caucasian, they noted, but that his
skull measurements differ markedly from those accepted as typical of Native
Americans.
Kennewick's cranium is not as broad as those of modern Native Americans.
He has a longer and narrower brain case, or cranial vault, and is less
heavily built in the facial area.
Haynes said his interest in the case would be investigating the provenance
-- the earth strata from which the skeletal remains were washed out -- for
other clues to Kennwick Man's era and culture.
"I would want to determine if the geologic position of it is consistent
with the carbon 14 dates. If the carbon 14 dates aren't right, then
people need to understand that."
One tool in dating remains, he said, is Mazama ash layer, the result of a
volcanic eruption that occurred about 6,800 years ago, blanketing much of
the Northwest United States in a blanket of white ash.
"We think the remains came from below that, but you've got to keep in mind,
no one saw the bones when they were in the bank of the creek," Haynes said.
And that, he added, is why it is important for scientists to be able to
examine the terrace from which the bones came. Unfortunately, the site is
on federal property, and the government, after a brief geologic study, has
halted continued examination or trenching. And the government has covered
part of the site with tons of rip-rap.
"The federal government spent over $100,000 to bury it and plant trees,"
Haynes said. "If you plant trees, you're going to have roots going down
and disturbing any archaeological remains still at the site. And the
organic matter will make radiocarbon dating more difficult."
The government considers the rip-rap a way to protect the site. Haynes
and the other scientists see it as an obstruction.
"Was it a burial? We don't know. That's why it is so important to examine
the site and maybe even conduct excavations on that terrace," he said.
In general, Haynes said, he doesn't have a problem with "repatriating" the
remains for reburial after they have been thoroughly studied. But that
position could change.
"The one hesitation is that, what if five years from now we have some new
technology that is just leaps and bounds ahead of what we know now? It
would be unfortunate if there was no longer any access. That's strictly
my own opinion."
Haynes said he discussed Kennewick Man with a Native American colleague,
a Hopi who is a faculty member with American Indian Studies at UA.
"I talked with Emory Sekaquaptewa and he said, 'We're not all one Indian.
I am just as anxious to learn about it as you are, where he came from
and all of that.'"
But, Haynes added, Sekaquaptewa warned that the effort would run into
problems with the Native American Grave Protection and Repatriation Act.
The legal wars have proven that true. But for Haynes, analyzing the
bones is more about science than winning.
"We're studying to find out what the heck happened. I'm not interested in
winning any arguments. I just want a reason for why this guy died, where
he came from and how he relates to the people, both earlier and later,
that we know of from archaeology."
[INSET] OTHERS INVOLVED IN LAWSUIT
C. Vance Haynes, a University of Arizona professor emeritus, is one of
eight scientists who are suing to force the government to allow more
study of Kennewick Man remains before they ultimately are reburied.
The others are:
* Robson Bonnichsen, director of the Center for the Study of First
Americans, and an anthropology professor at Oregon State University.
* C. Loring Bruce, curator of biological anthropology and a professor of
anthropology at the University of Michigan.
* George W. Gill, a professor of anthropology at the University of Wyoming.
* Richard L. Jantz, a physical anthropologist at the University of
Tennessee at Knoxville.
* Douglas W. Owsley, a physical anthropologist for the Smithsonian
Institution.
* Dennis J. Stanford, director of archaeology at the Smithsonian.
* D. Gentry Steele, associate head of the Anthropology Department, Texas
A&M University.
Among those who believe they have kinship with Kennewick Man, and are
laying claim to the remains, are:
* Colville tribal group.
* An alliance of tribal groups including Colville, Umatilla, Nes Pearce
and Wanapum.
* Asutru Folk Assembly, a traditional European religion.
* Joseph P. Siofele of Manu'a, American Samoa.
[INSET] OPINIONS IN KENNEWICK SUIT
Alan L. Schneider, Portland, Ore., attorney representing plaintiffs:
* "If an individual (like Kennewick Man) is 440 generations old, if he has,
in fact, living descendants, they could be living anywhere in the world.
The time span between us and the Revolutionary War is only about 11
generations. Kennewick Man is 40 times that."
* "The court is aware that whatever it decides is likely to be viewed as a
precedent, and it will be extremely cautious to try to reach as thorough
and well-thought-out a result as a court can reach. We're figuring there
will be an appeal one way or the other."
* "We don't know all the reasons the government is leaning toward the
Native Americans. I believe they made it for political, rather than
legal and scientific, reasons."
Francis "Frank" P. McManamon, archeologist, National Park Service:
* "It's not a secret that there was considerable debate over the issue of
cultural affiliation within the Department of the Interior. Even the
secretary at the time, Bruce Babbitt, said he felt there was cultural
affiliation, and the secretary, after weighing the evidence, felt there
was a reasonable connection between modern man and ancient."
* "The Department of Interior did a great deal of investigation themselves.
It employed between 15 and 20 internationally recognized scientists ... .
They did scientific examinations of the remains on two different
occasions -- a physical examination of the remains, extensive recordings
of various features of the remains, several radiocarbon tests to try to
date the remains, and an attempt to do a DNA analysis. That ultimately
proved unsuccessful."
* "They (Corps of Engineers) put riprap, a preservation technique, put a
lot of heavy stones along the edge of the river (where the bones were
discovered), something the Corps felt was important . . . they (the
scientists suing the government) may view it as a hindrance. We view
it as protection."
James L. Chatters, physical anthropologist, owner of Applied Paleoscience,
Kirkland, Wash.:
* "We heard that the final word on the (National Park Service) internal
staff report was that there was no (tribal) affiliation (with Kennewick
Man), but that they were told to take that out... . I've never seen
this level of vehemence at getting to a skeleton before. At the time,
we had two other skeletons that had been in a locker for two years, and
they (tribal officials) waited another two years to pick them up."
* "I don't agree that the DNA testing went far enough. DNA experts have
requested teeth, which are very dense. They (federal officials) refused
both, and they had to do with fragments of rib and hand bones, where
(DNA) survivability is very low."
* "Racial groups we now know didn't even exist that far back (9,500 years
ago). Race is more of a political statement . . . to try to fit something
from 9,000 years ago into one of those pigeonholes is inappropriate."
Armand Minthorn, chairman, Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian
Reservation's cultural resources commission:
* "It gives me a tremendous feeling knowing that this Ancient One has been
reaffirmed as one of our ancestors. As tribal people who have lived on
the Columbia Plateau for thousands of years, we are eager to rebury our
ancestor and give him back to the earth."
[INSET] DISCOVERING KENNEWICK MAN
Skeletal remains now called Kennewick Man were discovered July 28, 1996, on
federal property outside Kennewick, Wash., by two young men watching a boat
race on the Columbia River.
The skull and other bones had washed out of an embankment nd ended up in
shallow water at the edge of the river. A coroner was called to the scene,
and noting that the remains appeared old, he asked James C. Chatters, a
physical anthropologist and owner of Applied Paleoscience in nearby
Kirkland, Wash., to examine the bones.
It was initially thought the bones might have been the remains of a trapper
or "mountain man," but close examination showed the tip of a flaked stone
spear point embedded in the pelvic bone. The bone had healed over the
spear point.
Carbon-14 dating tests were performed on the bones, and results showed the
remains to be 9,500 years old -- one of the earliest human remains
discovered in North America.
Chatters, who had suspected from the shape of the cranium that the remains
came from someone of European descent, realized the significance of the
find. He and other researchers then began a closer examination of the
bones, including starting a DNA testing procedure.
However, tribal groups learned of the discovery and told Army Corps of
Engineers officials that they wanted the bones repatriated, because their
oral tradition told them they had lived in the area of discovery "forever"
and therefore had a kinship claim to the remains.
The Corps offered researchers to stop their testing, seized the remains
and locked them in a vault. Apparently realizing the find was a political
hot potato, the Corps quickly turned them over to the Department of the
Interior, which assigned them to the National Park Service.
Before this was done, however, Native American representatives were allowed
to view the bones and to perform ritual ceremonies with them -- some of
which included placing tree boughs on them.
Attorneys representing Haynes and the other scientists objected, saying
the government was playing favorites in allowing some to view the bones
and not others.
By the time the National Park Service had the remains curated at Burke
Museum in Washington state, two pieces of leg bone were missing. They
since have been found, according to a National Park Service spokesman,
but how they came to be missing isn't known.
Today, the bones remain in the Burke Museum, awaiting a court decision
on their fate.
[Note: Fat-fingered or uploaded by Terry W. Colvin, hopefully with a
minimum of typos.]
--
Terry W. Colvin, Sierra Vista, Arizona (USA) < fortean1@mindspring.com >
Alternate: < terry_colvin@hotmail.com >
Home Page: < http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Stargate/8958/index.html >
Sites: Fortean Times * Northwest Mysteries * Mystic's Cyberpage *
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