Fate of ‘Kennewick Man’ in Magistrate’s Hands

A federal judge says he has “very serious concerns” about the basis for an Interior Department decision last year to give to Indian tribes the 9,300-year-old skeleton known as “Kennewick Man.”

U.S. Magistrate John Jelderks is hearing arguments in a lawsuit filed by eight scientists who want to overturn the decision.

Then-Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt gave the remains to five Columbia Basin tribes for burial based on their oral traditions that they have always lived on their homelands, which are near where the skeleton was found.

The decision was based on the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, which requires that ancestral remains be returned to tribes.

At a June 20 hearing, Jelderks expressed frustration that the tribes do not have a story in their oral traditions that specifically identify the remains of what they call “the Ancient One” as an ancestor.

Christopher Burford, attorney for the Umatilla tribes, said that although the tribes have no stories mentioning a warrior who died on the banks of the Columbia, tribal histories mention people surviving a flood in the Columbia Plateau that covered all but the tallest mountains. Geologic evidence shows the only flood of that magnitude in the area came 13,000 years ago, thousands of years before the Ancient One lived, making him part of their group.

The bones, bearing a stone spear point in the pelvis, were discovered in July 1996 in an eroding bank of the Columbia River at Kennewick, Wash. Citing the Indian burial law, the Army Corps of Engineers awarded the bones to the Colville, Umatilla, Yakama, Nez Perce and Wanapum tribes.

The scientists want to study the skeleton to see whether it represents some unknown source of migration to North America apart from the traditional theory of people walking from Asia across a land bridge to North America.

“We’re talking about something that could change our understanding of the way the world was populated,” lawyer Paula Barran said.

Based on preliminary study, scientists figure the bones are the remains of a hunter in his 40s with a prominent nose and heavily muscled legs whose physical characteristics more closely resemble people from Polynesia and Japan than American Indians.

Jelderks said there were several ways to interpret the federal law on whether it requires proof of a direct link between a set of remains and a modern Indian tribe.

“I have very serious concerns about the expansive interpretation the secretary put on the statute,” Jelderks said.

The judge said he would issue a ruling in several weeks.

Attorneys for the tribes urged Jelderks to bear in mind that the intent of Congress was to give American Indians who die the same respect afforded the bodies of non-Indians.

“The starting point for analysis is that there is no unfettered right to study the bodies of dead people,” said Walter Echohawk, a lawyer for the National Congress of American Indians. “The only exception to that is American Indians, and Congress has closed that hole.”

In a similar case last year, the Bureau of Land Management decided that the 9,500-year-old skeletal remains called Spirit Cave Man should not be given to American tribes.

Spirit Cave Man was discovered 60 years ago in western Nevada. The mummy was wrapped in tule mats and a fur robe, and using the textiles as evidence, the bureau concluded that Spirit Cave Man was not affiliated with any contemporary tribe or group.

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Friends of the Past:

www.friendsofpast.org

Umatilla Tribes:

www.umatilla.nsn.us/activity.html

Department of Interior:

www.cr.nps.gov/aad/kennewick