Kennewick Man is the name for the skeletal remains of a prehistoric (Paleo-Indian) man found on a bank of the Columbia River in Kennewick, Washington, USA, on July 28, 1996. The discovery of Kennewick Man was accidental; a pair of spectators (Will Thomas and David Deacy) found his skull while attending the annual hydroplane races.[1]
One of the most complete ancient skeletons ever found, bone tests have shown the skeleton to be somewhere between 5650 and 9510 years old. These findings triggered a nine-year legal clash between scientists, the American government and Native American tribes who claim Kennewick Man as their ancestor. The long dispute has made him an international celebrity.
In February 2004, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that a cultural link between any of the Native American tribes and the Kennewick Man was not genetically justified, allowing scientific study of the remains to continue.[2]
In July 2005, a team of scientists from around the United States convened in Seattle for ten days to study the remains, making many detailed measurements and determining the cause of death.
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The remains had been scattered in the reservoir due to erosion. Following delivery of the cranium by the coroner, they were examined by archaeologist James Chatters. After ten visits to the site, Chatters had managed to collect 350 bones and pieces of bone, which with the skull completed almost an entire skeleton.[4] The cranium was fully intact with all the teeth that had been present at the time of death.[5] All major bones were found, except the sternum and a few bones of the hands and feet. The remains were determined to be those of "a male of late middle age (40-55 years), and tall (170 to 176 cm), slender build".[5] Many of the bones were broken into several pieces.[6] At the University of California at Riverside, a small bone fragment was subjected to radiocarbon dating. This fixed the age of the skeleton at approximately 9,300 years (8,400 uncalibrated "radiocarbon years"), not the nineteenth century, as had originally been assumed.[4] After studying the bones, Chatters concluded they belonged to a Caucasoid male about 68 inches (173 cm) tall who had died in his mid fifties.[4]
Chatters found that bone had partially grown around a 79 mm (3.1 in) stone projectile lodged in the ilium, part of the pelvic bone.[6] On x-ray, nothing appeared. Chatters put the bone through a CT scan, and it was discovered the projectile was made from a siliceous gray stone that was found to have igneous (intrusive volcanic) origins.[6] The projectile was leaf-shaped, long, broad and had serrated edges, all fitting the definition of a Cascade point. This type of point is a feature of the Cascade phase, which occurred roughly 7,500 to 12,000 years ago.[6]
To further investigate the mystery of the Kennewick man and determine if the skeleton belonged to the Umatilla Native American tribe, an extraction of DNA was analyzed, and according to the report of the scientists doing the DNA analysis: "available technology and protocols do not allow the analysis of ancient DNA from these remains."[7]
Anthropologist Joseph Powell of the University of New Mexico was also allowed to examine the remains and his conclusions were contradictory. Powell used craniometric data obtained by anthropologist William White Howells of Harvard University and anthropologist Tsunehiko Hanihara (Japanese:埴原恒彦) of Saga University that had the "advantage" of including data drawn from "Asia" and "North America" populations.[8] Powell said that Kennewick Man was not European but most resembled the "Ainu"[4] and "Polynesians".[8] Powell said that the "Ainu" descend from the Jōmon people who are an "east Asian" population with "closest biological affinity with south-east Asians rather than western Eurasian peoples".[9] Furthermore, Powell said that dental analysis showed the skull had a "94 percent" chance of being a "Sundadont" group like the "Ainu" and "Polynesians" and only a "48 percent" chance of being a "Sinodont" group like that of "north Asia".[8] Powell said analysis of the skull showed it to be "unlike American Indians and Europeans".[8] Powell concluded that Kennewick man "is clearly not a Caucasoid" unless "Ainu" and "Polynesians" are considered "Caucasoid".[9]
Chatters et al. conducted a graphic comparison, including size, of Kennewick Man to 18 modern populations and showed Kennewick Man was most closely related to the Ainu. However, when size was excluded as a factor, no association to any population was established.[4] Chatters said that anthropologist C. Loring Brace classified "Ainu" and "Polynesians" as a single "craniofacial" "Jomon-Pacific cluster" and Chatters said "Polynesians" have "craniofacial" similarities to "Asian, Australian and European peoples".[8]
In a publication about Kennewick Man, anthropologist Glynn Custred of California State University East Bay said "expert on Asian populations" "physical anthropologist" C. Loring Brace of University of Michigan" believed "people related to the Jomon" came before the "modern Indian" and that "two varieties of American Indian" arose from the former being "absorbed" by the latter with the "Plains Indian" resembling the older group.[4]
The biological diversity among ancient skulls in the Americas has further complicated attempts to establish how closely Kennewick Man is related to any modern Native American tribes.[4] Skulls older than 8,000 years old have been found to possess greater physical diversity than do those of modern Native Americans. This range implies that there was a genetic shift in populations about 8,000 years ago. The heterogeneity of these early people shows that genetic drift had already occurred, meaning the racial type represented by Kennewick Man had been in existence for a considerable period of time.[4]
The discovery of Kennewick Man, along with other ancient skeletons, has furthered scientific debate over the exact origin and history of early Native American people.[4] The prevailing hypothesis holds that a single wave of migration occurred, consisting of hunters and gatherers following large herds of game, which wandered across the Bering land bridge around 12,000 years ago. Other hypotheses contend that there were numerous waves of migration to the Americas. The apparent diversity of ancient skeletal remains, which may include traits not typically associated with modern Native Americans, has been used as evidence to support these rival hypotheses. A 2008 study on the genetics of modern Native American populations suggests that the 86 samples taken are descendants of a single migration that spread out along a coastal route prior to the Clovis era.[10]
According to the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, if human remains are found on federal lands and their cultural affiliation to a Native American tribe can be established, the affiliated tribe can claim them. The Umatilla tribe requested custody of the remains, wanting to bury them according to tribal tradition. Their claim was contested by researchers hoping to study the remains.
The Umatilla argued that their oral history goes back 10,000 years and say that their people have been present on their historical territory since the dawn of time,[11] so a government holding that Kennewick Man is not Native American is tantamount to the government's rejection of their religious beliefs.
Robson Bonnichsen and seven other anthropologists sued the United States for the right to conduct tests on the skeleton. On February 4, 2004, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit panel rejected the appeal brought by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Umatilla, Colville, Yakama, Nez Perce and other tribes on the grounds that they were unable to show any evidence of kinship.[2]
On April 7, 2005, during the 109th Congress, United States Senator John McCain introduced an amendment to NAGPRA which (section 108) would have changed the definition of "Native American" from being that which "is indigenous to the United States" to "is or was indigenous to the United States."[12] However, the 109th Congress concluded without enacting the bill. By the bill's definition, Kennewick Man would have been classified as Native American, regardless of whether any link to a contemporary tribe could be found. Proponents of this definition argue that it agrees with current scientific understanding, which is that it is not in all cases possible for prehistoric remains to be traced to current tribal entities, partly because of social upheaval, forced resettlement and extinction of entire ethnicities caused by disease and warfare. Doing so would still not remove the controversy surrounding Kennewick Man as then it would have to be decided which Native American group should take possession of the remains if he could not be definitively linked with a current tribe. To be of practical use in a historical and prehistorical context, some argue further that the term "Native American" should be applied so that it spans the entire range from the Clovis culture (which cannot be positively assigned to any contemporary tribal group) to the Métis, a group of mixed ancestry who only came into being as a consequence of European contact, yet constitute a distinct cultural entity.
The remains are now at the Burke Museum at the University of Washington, where they were deposited in October 1998. They are still legally the property of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, as they were found on land under its custody.[13]
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| Americas | Paleo-Indians · Genetic history · Archaeology of the Americas · Indigenous peoples of the Americas | |||
| North America | North American pre-Columbian cultures – Caddoan Mississippian – Chichimeca –Hopewell tradition – Coles Creek – Fremont – Marksville – Mississippian – Mogollon – Plaquemine – Plum Bayou – Poverty Point – Troyville – Weeden Island – | |||
| Mesoamerica | Mesoamerican pre-Columbian chronology – Capacha – Cholula – Coclé – Epi-Olmec – Huastec – Izapa – Mixtec – Olmec – Pipil – Quelepa – Shaft tomb tradition – Teuchitlan – Tarascan – Teotihuacan – Tlatilco – Tlaxcaltec – Toltec – Totonac – Veracruz – Xochipala – Zapotec | |||
| South America | South American Indigenous people – pre-Columbian chronology – Cañaris – Chachapoya – Chancay – Chavín – Chimu – El Abra – Hydraulic culture of mounds (Bolivia) – Las Vegas – Lima – La Tolita (Tumaco) – Manteño-Guancavilca – Mapuche – Moche – Mollo – Muisca (Chibchas) – Nariño – Nazca – Norte Chico – Quimbaya – San Agustin – Shuar – Sican – Taino – Tairona – Tiwanaku – Tierradentro – Valdivia – Wari | |||
| Aztec civilization | Maya civilization | Inca Empire – Inca civilization | ||
| Language | Nahuatl language | Mayan languages | Quechua | |
| Writing | Aztec writing | Mayan writing | Quipu | |
| Religion | Aztec religion | Maya religion | Inca religion | |
| Mythology | Aztec mythology | Maya mythology | Inca mythology | |
| Calendar | Aztec calendar | Maya calendar | ||
| Society | Aztec society | Maya society | Inca society | |
| Infrastructure | Chinampas | Maya architecture | Inca architecture (road system) Incan agriculture |
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| History | Aztec history | Inca history | ||
| People | Moctezuma I Moctezuma II Cuitlahuac Cuauhtémoc |
K'inich Janaab' Pakal Uaxaclajuun Ub'aah K'awiil Jasaw Chan K'awiil I |
Manco Cápac Pachacutec Atahualpa Manco Inca |
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| Conquest | Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire (Hernán Cortés) |
Spanish conquest of Yucatán (Francisco de Montejo) Spanish conquest of Guatemala (Pedro de Alvarado) |
Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire (Francisco Pizarro) |
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| See also | ||||
| Portal:Indigenous peoples of North America – Columbian exchange – Mesoamerican writing systems – Native American cuisine – Native American pottery – Population history of American indigenous peoples – Pre-Columbian art – Painting in the Americas before Colonization | ||||
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