Kennewick Man
Encyclopedia
Remains
Remains may refer to:* "Remains" , a 2009 song by Maurissa Tancharoen and Jed Whedon* Remains , a 2007 compilation album by punk band Alkaline Trio...
of a prehistoric
Prehistory
Prehistory is the span of time before recorded history. Prehistory can refer to the period of human existence before the availability of those written records with which recorded history begins. More broadly, it refers to all the time preceding human existence and the invention of writing...
(Paleo-Indian) man found on a bank
Stream bed
A stream bed is the channel bottom of a stream, river or creek; the physical confine of the normal water flow. The lateral confines or channel margins, during all but flood stage, are known as the stream banks or river banks. In fact, a flood occurs when a stream overflows its banks and flows onto...
of the Columbia River
Columbia River
The Columbia River is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river rises in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia, Canada, flows northwest and then south into the U.S. state of Washington, then turns west to form most of the border between Washington and the state...
in Kennewick, Washington
Kennewick, Washington
Kennewick is a city in Benton County in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of Washington, near the Hanford nuclear site. It is the most populous of the three cities collectively referred to as the Tri-Cities...
, USA, on July 28, 1996. The discovery of Kennewick Man was accidental; a pair of spectators (Will Thomas and David Deacy) found his skull
Human skull
The human skull is a bony structure, skeleton, that is in the human head and which supports the structures of the face and forms a cavity for the brain.In humans, the adult skull is normally made up of 22 bones...
while attending the annual hydroplane races.
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
United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit is a U.S. federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts in the following districts:* District of Alaska* District of Arizona...
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.
In July 2005, a team of scientists from around the United States convened in Seattle
Seattle, Washington
Seattle is the county seat of King County, Washington. With 608,660 residents as of the 2010 Census, Seattle is the largest city in the Northwestern United States. The Seattle metropolitan area of about 3.4 million inhabitants is the 15th largest metropolitan area in the country...
for ten days to study the remains, making many detailed measurements and determining the cause of death.
Scientific significance
Columbia Park, Kennewick
The Columbia Park is a recreational area with 4.5 miles of shoreline of the Columbia River located in the city of Kennewick in the U.S. state Washington...
due to erosion. Following delivery of the cranium by the coroner, they were examined by archaeologist James Chatters
James Chatters
Dr. James C Chatters is an American archaeologist and paleontologist who unearthed the remainder of Kennewick Man in Benton County, Washington in July 1996, after the skull was found by two prospectors.-Biography:...
. 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. The cranium was fully intact with all the teeth that had been present at the time of death. 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". Many of the bones were broken into several pieces. At the University of California at Riverside, a small bone fragment was subjected to radiocarbon dating
Radiocarbon dating
Radiocarbon dating is a radiometric dating method that uses the naturally occurring radioisotope carbon-14 to estimate the age of carbon-bearing materials up to about 58,000 to 62,000 years. Raw, i.e. uncalibrated, radiocarbon ages are usually reported in radiocarbon years "Before Present" ,...
. 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. 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.
Chatters found that bone had partially grown around a 79 mm (3.1 in) stone projectile lodged in the ilium
Ilium (bone)
The ilium is the uppermost and largest bone of the pelvis, and appears in most vertebrates including mammals and birds, but not bony fish. All reptiles have an ilium except snakes, although some snake species have a tiny bone which is considered to be an ilium.The name comes from the Latin ,...
, part of the pelvic bone. 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. The projectile was leaf-shaped, long, broad and had serrated edges, all fitting the definition of a Cascade point
Cascade point
A Cascade point is a projectile point associated with the Cascade phase, an ancient culture of Native Americans that settled in the Pacific Northwest that existed from 9000 or 10000 BC until about 5500 BC....
. This type of point is a feature of the Cascade phase, which occurred roughly 7,500 to 12,000 years ago.
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."
Anthropologist Joseph Powell of the University of New Mexico
University of New Mexico
The University of New Mexico at Albuquerque is a public research university located in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in the United States. It is the state's flagship research institution...
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
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
and anthropologist Tsunehiko Hanihara (Japanese
Japanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
:埴原恒彦) of Saga University
Saga University
; abbreviated as or , is a higher education institution in Saga, Japan.The University has 5 faculties with a total of around about 7,000 students. Its 2 campuses are in and .-History:...
that had the "advantage" of including data drawn from "Asia" and "North America" populations. Powell said that Kennewick Man was not European but most resembled the "Ainu"
Ainu people
The , also called Aynu, Aino , and in historical texts Ezo , are indigenous people or groups in Japan and Russia. Historically they spoke the Ainu language and related varieties and lived in Hokkaidō, the Kuril Islands, and much of Sakhalin...
and "Polynesians
Polynesians
The Polynesian peoples is a grouping of various ethnic groups that speak Polynesian languages, a branch of the Oceanic languages within the Austronesian languages, and inhabit Polynesia. They number approximately 1,500,000 people...
". Powell said that the "Ainu" descend from the Jōmon people who are a "south Asian" population with "closest biological affinity with south Asians rather than western Eurasian peoples". 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
Sinodont
Sinodonty and Sundadonty are two patterns, identified by anthropologist Christy Turner, for East Asia, within the "Mongoloid dental complex"...
" group like that of "north Asia". Powell said analysis of the skull showed it to be "unlike American Indians and Europeans". Powell concluded that Kennewick man "is clearly not a Caucasoid" unless "Ainu" and "Polynesians" are considered "Caucasoid".
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. Chatters said that anthropologist C. Loring Brace
C. Loring Brace
C. Loring Brace is an anthropologist at the University of Michigan. He considers the attempt "to introduce a Darwinian outlook into biological anthropology" to be his greatest contribution to the field of anthropology.-Life and work:...
classified "Ainu" and "Polynesians" as a single "craniofacial" "Jomon-Pacific cluster" and Chatters said "Polynesians" have "craniofacial" similarities to "Asian, Australian and European peoples".
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
C. Loring Brace
C. Loring Brace is an anthropologist at the University of Michigan. He considers the attempt "to introduce a Darwinian outlook into biological anthropology" to be his greatest contribution to the field of anthropology.-Life and work:...
of University of Michigan
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the 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.
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. 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
Genetic drift
Genetic drift or allelic drift is the change in the frequency of a gene variant in a population due to random sampling.The alleles in the offspring are a sample of those in the parents, and chance has a role in determining whether a given individual survives and reproduces...
had already occurred, meaning the racial type represented by Kennewick Man had been in existence for a considerable period of time.
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. 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
Bering land bridge
The Bering land bridge was a land bridge roughly 1,000 miles wide at its greatest extent, which joined present-day Alaska and eastern Siberia at various times during the Pleistocene ice ages. Like most of Siberia and all of Manchuria, Beringia was not glaciated because snowfall was extremely light...
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.
Ownership controversy
According to the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation ActNative American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act
The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act , Pub. L. 101-601, 25 U.S.C. 3001 et seq., 104 Stat. 3048, is a United States federal law passed on 16 November 1990 requiring federal agencies and institutions that receive federal funding to return Native American "cultural items" to...
, if human remains are found on federal lands and their cultural affiliation to a Native American
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
tribe can be established, the affiliated tribe can claim them. The Umatilla
Umatilla (tribe)
The Umatilla are a Sahaptin-speaking Native American group living on the Umatilla Indian Reservation, who traditionally inhabited the Columbia Plateau region of the northwestern United States....
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
Oral history
Oral history is the collection and study of historical information about individuals, families, important events, or everyday life using audiotapes, videotapes, or transcriptions of planned interviews...
goes back 10,000 years and say that their people have been present on their historical territory since the dawn of time, so a government holding that Kennewick Man is not Native American is tantamount to the government's rejection of their religious beliefs.
Robson Bonnichsen
Robson Bonnichsen
Robson Bonnichsen was an anthropologist who undertook pioneering research in First American studies, popularized the field and founded the Center for the Study of the First Americans...
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
United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit is a U.S. federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts in the following districts:* District of Alaska* District of Arizona...
panel rejected the appeal brought by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Umatilla, Colville
Colville
-Places:Canada*Colville Lake, Northwest Territories*Colville Lake , for which the communiy is namedNew Zealand*Colville, New Zealand, on the Coromandel Peninsula, and the following nearby features:** Cape Colville...
, Yakama
Yakama
The Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation, or simply Yakama Nation , is a Native American group with nearly 10,000 enrolled members, living in Washington. Their reservation, along the Yakima River, covers an area of approximately 1.2 million acres...
, Nez Perce and other tribes on the grounds that they were unable to show any evidence of kinship
Kinship
Kinship is a relationship between any entities that share a genealogical origin, through either biological, cultural, or historical descent. And descent groups, lineages, etc. are treated in their own subsections....
.
On April 7, 2005, during the 109th Congress, United States Senator John McCain
John McCain
John Sidney McCain III is the senior United States Senator from Arizona. He was the Republican nominee for president in the 2008 United States election....
introduced an amendment to NAGPRA
Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act
The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act , Pub. L. 101-601, 25 U.S.C. 3001 et seq., 104 Stat. 3048, is a United States federal law passed on 16 November 1990 requiring federal agencies and institutions that receive federal funding to return Native American "cultural items" to...
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." 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
Clovis culture
The Clovis culture is a prehistoric Paleo-Indian culture that first appears 11,500 RCYBP , at the end of the last glacial period, characterized by the manufacture of "Clovis points" and distinctive bone and ivory tools...
(which cannot be positively assigned to any contemporary tribal group) to the Métis
Métis people (Canada)
The Métis are one of the Aboriginal peoples in Canada who trace their descent to mixed First Nations parentage. The term was historically a catch-all describing the offspring of any such union, but within generations the culture syncretised into what is today a distinct aboriginal group, with...
, 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
University of Washington
University of Washington is a public research university, founded in 1861 in Seattle, Washington, United States. The UW is the largest university in the Northwest and the oldest public university on the West Coast. The university has three campuses, with its largest campus in the University...
, 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.
Further reading
- Jones, Peter N. "Respect for the Ancestors: American Indian Cultural Affiliation in the American West" Boulder: Bauu Press, 2005. ISBN 0-9721349-2-1
- Chatters, James C. "Ancient Encounters: Kennewick Man & the First Americans" New York: Simon & Schuster, 2002. ISBN 0-684-85936-X
- Dawkins, RichardRichard DawkinsClinton Richard Dawkins, FRS, FRSL , known as Richard Dawkins, is a British ethologist, evolutionary biologist and author...
. "Unweaving the Rainbow: Science, Delusion and the Appetite for WonderUnweaving the RainbowUnweaving the Rainbow is a 1998 book by Richard Dawkins, discussing the relationship between science and the arts from the perspective of a scientist....
" Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2000. ISBN 0-618-05673-4 - Downey, Roger. "Riddle of the Bones: Politics, Science, Race, and the Story of Kennewick Man" New York: Springer, 2000. ISBN 978-0387988771
- Thomas, David HurstDavid Hurst ThomasDavid Hurst Thomas is the Curator in the Department of Anthropology at the American Museum of Natural History and an Adjunct Professor at Columbia University and the City University of New York....
. "Skull Wars: Kennewick Man, Archaeology, and the Battle for Native American Identity" New York: Basic Books, ca. 2000. ISBN 0-465-09224-1 - Adler, Jerry. "A 9,000-Year-Old Secret." New York: Newsweek. July 25, 2005. Vol. 146, Issue 4; pg. 52. (link)
- Benedict, Jeff. "No bone unturned: Inside the world of a top forensic scientist and his work on America's most notorious crimes and disasters" New York: HarperCollinsPublishers, 2003. ISBN 0-06-095888-X
- Readings in American Indian Law: Recalling the Rhythm of Survival, Philadelphia: Temple University Press (Jo Carrillo ed. 1998).
- Bones, Discovering the First Americans, Elaine Dewar, Carroll & Graf Publishers, New York, 2002, ISBN 0-7867-0979-0
External links
- Kennewick Man on Trial Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture
- Forensic observations by James C. Chatters
- Kennewick Man Case from Friends of America's Past - events, press releases, court documents
- Kennewick Virtual Interpretive Center from Tri-City Herald
- National Park Service AEP: Kennewick Man (all text and images from this site are in the public domain)
- The Umatilla Tribe's official position
- Kennewick Man and the New World Entrada, by Kris Hirst at About.com
- "Kennewick Man Sighted Buying Groceries in Virginia", by Cynthia Van Gilder at Ethnography.com
- "NMNH Scientist Studies Kennewick Man" - The scientific team assembled to study the Kennewick Man skeletal finished the second phase of research. Douglas Owsley, Smithsonian anthropologist, presented findings in 2006 in Seattle. Smithsonian website.
- "Kennewick Man", Owlsey's appearance on NOVANOVA (TV series)Nova is a popular science television series from the U.S. produced by WGBH Boston. It can be seen on the Public Broadcasting Service in the United States, and in more than 100 other countries...
’s Mystery of the First Americans in February 2000; including filing of lawsuit against reburial of remains. Smithsonian website. - "Does DNA evidence refute the discovery of Americas", by Kvenland.org.
- NOVA Study Guide; four segments:
- "Does Race Exist?" Anthropologists George GillGeorge GillGeorge Lloyd Gill was a professional baseball pitcher. He played three seasons in Major League Baseball, for the Detroit Tigers from 1937–39 and for the St. Louis Browns in 1939....
of the University of WyomingUniversity of WyomingThe University of Wyoming is a land-grant university located in Laramie, Wyoming, situated on Wyoming's high Laramie Plains, at an elevation of 7,200 feet , between the Laramie and Snowy Range mountains. It is known as UW to people close to the university...
and Loring Brace of the University of MichiganUniversity of MichiganThe University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...
debated; - "Meet Kennewick Man (QTVRQuickTime VRQuickTime VR is a type of image file format developed by Apple Inc. for QuickTime. It allows the creation and viewing of photographically-captured panoramas and the exploration of objects through images taken at multiple viewing angles...
)." Archeologist Chatters spoke of working with the remains; - "Claims for the Remains": Robson BonnichsenRobson BonnichsenRobson Bonnichsen was an anthropologist who undertook pioneering research in First American studies, popularized the field and founded the Center for the Study of the First Americans...
; Brace; Gill, Vance HaynesVance HaynesCaleb Vance Haynes Jr. , known as Vance Haynes or C. Vance Haynes Jr., is an archaeologist, geologist and author who specializes in the archaeology of the American Southwest...
, Richard JantzRichard JantzDr. Richard L. Jantz, Professor Emeritus served as the director of the Forensic Anthropology Center from 1998–2011 and is a retired professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville...
, Owsley, Dennis StanfordDennis StanfordDennis J. Stanford in Cherokee, Iowa is an archaeologist and Director of the Paleo-Indian Program at the National Museum of Natural History at the Smithsonian Institution. Along with Prof...
, Gentry Steele spoke about suit against the U.S. government; - "The Dating Game (Hot Science)." Application of carbon-14Carbon-14Carbon-14, 14C, or radiocarbon, is a radioactive isotope of carbon with a nucleus containing 6 protons and 8 neutrons. Its presence in organic materials is the basis of the radiocarbon dating method pioneered by Willard Libby and colleagues , to date archaeological, geological, and hydrogeological...
analysis.