Kennewick Man

Kennewick Man (also known as the Ancient One) is an Early Holocene human skeleton first discovered near Kennewick, Washington in 1996. Its age is estimated at 9200 to 9600 years, making it one of the oldest sets of human remains yet found in North America. Kennewick Man is also at the center of a long debate between scientists who stress the importance of studying the remains in order to advance our understanding of early humans in the Americas and people in the Native American community who claim cultural rights to the remains under the rules of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) and wish to rebury the skeleton.

Discovery and preliminary investigation

Kennewick man’s skull was first discovered on July 28th, 2006 along the bank of the Columbia River on land under the administration of the Army Corps of Engineers. Anthropologist Jim Chatters was recruited to lead an investigation of the remains and a nearly complete skeleton was recovered in the following days. "The completeness and unusually good condition of the skeleton, presence of caucasoid traits, lack of definitive Native-American characteristics, and the association with an early homestead led [Chatters] to suspect that the bones represented a European settler," but other evidence soon led his team's investigation in another direction. CT scans revealed the object embedded in the skeleton's right hip to be a cascade point, indicating a much earlier origin. A small piece of bone was sent to a lab at the University of California at Riverside for carbon dating and it was confirmed that the skeleton was over 9000 years old.

Other preliminary observations made by Chatters and his team revealed a number of details about Kennewick Man that make him particularly interesting to paleontologists and anthropologists. His skull shows no evidence of head flattening from a cradle board, his weight bearing bones show minimal signs of arthritis, and his teeth show relatively little wear, all of which sets him apart from more recent populations in the region. His facial features also distinguish him from other populations: he shares a number of traits in common with modern caucasoid populations, others with modern Native Americans, and still others with neither group. His dental characteristics suggest ties to South Asian peoples.

Kennewick Man was tall (170 to 176 cm ) and lived to be 40 to 55 years old. He rarely carried more than forty or fifty pounds, as is indicated by the minimal sign of arthritis in his bones. And he ate a lot of soft foods, especially fish. He survived a number of significant injuries, including a bone crushing blow to the chest, atrophy of the left humerus, and the spear strike to his hip which hit him with enough force to suggest that it was thrown with an atlatl.

Kennewick Man in court

Chatters quickly recognized the significance of the Kennewick bones, noting in 1996 that the ancient and nearly complete skeleton was "a unique find for North America" but he also knew that it would be a challenge to satisfy both the scientific community and the Native American community, who each held a stake in the fate of the bones. "We're not sure what is going to happen next," he said, "It's a sensitive issue dealing with Native American remains, or anyone's remains. This person could be related to anyone with Native American ancestry."

Controversy erupted soon after the historic discovery as to what would become of Kennewick Man. In early September 1996, the federal government, which was now in custody of the bones because they had been found on land administered by the Army Corps of Engineers, announced that the remains would be returned to the five tribes (the Yakama, Umatilla, Nez Perce, Colville and Wanapum) that had claimed rights to them under the conventions of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, which requires museums and government agencies to return to Native American tribes any human remains, funerary objects, or sacred objects that fall within the tribes’ cultural patrimony. Before the end of the mandatory comment period, however, eight anthropologists filed suit against the government in a Portland court, claiming that "repatriation will deprive scholars of any opportunity or right to study this treasure." "Let the anthropologists study their own bones," replied Jerry Meninick of the Yakama Indian Nation.

The anthropologists argued that they would cause no harm to the remains and that they were in fact honoring them by seeking to learn from them, adding that there is no proof that the skeleton is actually related to any of the tribes that live in the Columbia basin today. Representatives of the tribes countered that the anthropologists’ studies were offensive to the Native American community and recalled the history of disregard for American Indian objections to the collection of sacred objects and cultural artifacts to be put on display in distant museums. The court called on the United States Department of the Interior, which commissioned a series of studies to determine the extent of cultural affiliation between Kennewick Man and the modern tribes that relied on such affiliations in order to justify their claims under NAGPRA. The results of those studies were largely inconclusive, however, and the court ruled in favor of the scientists in August 2002. The Nez Perce, Umatilla, Yakama, and Colville tribes quickly filed a suit of their own and the legal battle dragged on into the summer of 2004 when the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a request to rehear the case en banc.

Over the course of the 8-year legal proceedings, the skeleton was moved several times, turbulent debates erupted over who had been given access to the remains and under what conditions, and several pieces of the bones disappeared for some two and a half years. Kennewick Man’s remains are currently housed in the Burke Museum at the University of Washington, which states on its website that it “will continue to provide a secure and respectful repository for these human remains" until otherwise instructed by the court or the Army Corps of Engineers.

Upon his death, he was buried with his arms placed at his sides and his feet pointing east. His head was inclined slightly forward, perhaps in order to face the rising sun.