A Lock On History Kennewick Man Rests In Vault While Tribes, Scientists Clash

To scientists he is Kennewick Man, a visitor from the past who may have invaluable information about early human life in North America.

To the Umatilla Indians, he is Ancient One and his bones must be returned to rest immediately.

One year after high water washed his 9,200-year-old remains out of the Columbia River’s edge, the bones are the subject of a controversy that threatens to obscure new insights into prehistoric peoples of the New World.

For decades, the prevailing scientific theory has been that Ice Age ancestors of modern Indians reached North America between 12,000 and 15,000 years ago, crossing a now-submerged land bridge from the Far East to what is now Alaska.

Initial examination of Kennewick Man’s skull suggested he had Caucasoid features, and local archaeologist James Chatters at first figured the bones belonged to a modern white man who drowned or met foul play.

Then carbon-dating determined the remains were 90 centuries old - bolstering previous discoveries that suggest ancestors of modern American Indians were not the first humans to roam the New World.

The bones’ discovery and the subsequent revelations drew a firestorm of protest from five Northwest Indian tribes, who succeeded in halting the studies and now want the bones reburied without further examination.

On the other side, a handful of archaeologists - including some of the top scientists in the field - have filed a federal lawsuit to gain access to the remains. The U.S. Senate recently passed a bill calling for further study of the bones.

After nine millennia in mud, Kennewick Man has emerged only to bog down again in the judicial system. His bones are locked in a special vault at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in nearby Richland, where they cannot be studied, photographed or buried.

The tribal coalition, led by the Umatillas of northeast Oregon, contends the discovery site and a broken spear point lodged in Kennewick Man’s pelvic bone are sufficient evidence of his Indian ancestry.

Armand Minthorn, a Umatilla religious leader, did not return a reporter’s telephone call. But his statement summing up the tribe’s position is posted on its Internet site:

“If this individual is truly over 9,000 years old, that only substantiates our belief that he is Native American. … From our oral histories, we know that our people have been part of this land since the beginning of time.

“We do not believe that our people migrated here from another continent, as the scientists do,” Minthorn wrote.

The four other tribes seeking the remains are the Yakamas and Colvilles of Washington, the Wanapum Band of Yakamas and the Nez Perce of Idaho.

Chatters, who made the most thorough examination of the bones before they were confiscated by the federal government, was the one who noted the Caucasoid features.

He said the first thing he noticed was the narrow face and long head, a feature of Caucasoid peoples. The skeleton had a “europod” appearance, he said.

“It was not consistent with Native American skulls I worked with around here. The front of the face projects forward quite a bit,” Chatters said at his home in Richland.

Chatters theorizes that in life, Kennewick Man may have resembled actor Patrick Stewart, who plays Captain Picard on “Star Trek, the Next Generation.”

“Our elders have told us that Indian people did not always look the way we look today,” Minthorn wrote.

But Chatters said the Mongoloid features would have been even more pronounced in the millenniums before Europeans reached the New World.

He said his initial study suggests Kennewick Man’s contemporaries may have arrived on the continent first, to be succeeded by the ancestors of today’s Indians.

A handful of other remains, dating to the same period as Kennewick Man and sharing his Caucasoid features, have been found previously, mostly in the western United States where drier weather helped preserve them.

Where they came from remains a mystery.

And if they are Caucasoid, that raises questions about what happened to Kennewick Man and his contemporaries when the Indians arrived. They left almost no trace and appear to have been wiped out.

The Umatillas reject arguments that failure to study the bones could also be a loss of Indian history.

“We already know our history,” Minthorn wrote. “It is passed on to us through our elders and through our religious practices.”

Kennewick Man was found on July 28, 1996, when two college students attending hydroplane races tripped over the skull.

The nearly complete skeleton was brought to Chatters by law officers who thought Kennewick Man might be a modern murder victim.

Noting the shape of the skull and the broken spear point, Chatters thought the bones might date to 19th-century pioneer days. He took skull measurements and performed other forensic work, noting the person had suffered a lot of injuries in his 40 to 50 years.

And he sent a piece of bone to be carbon-dated.

Chatters was stunned when the results came back. The remains were 9,300 to 9,600 years old - the oldest ever found in Oregon or Washington and one of the oldest human skeletons ever found in North America.

Tribal demands for the ancient bones began immediately.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which owns the land where the remains were found, confiscated them a few days after the carbon dating.

While scientists are not allowed to see the bones, members of local tribes have been allowed into the vault to perform religious ceremonies, said corps spokesman Dutch Meier at regional headquarters in Walla Walla.

Chatters is one of eight archaeologists suing the corps for permission to study the bones.

In June, U.S. Magistrate John Jelderks of Portland ordered the corps to determine whether the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990 applies to the bones.

If it does, they must be returned immediately for burial.

The scientists contend Kennewick Man cannot be linked to an existing Indian tribe and thus is not covered by the law.

No further court action is expected until October.

The case is the first big legal challenge to the repatriation act, which required the nation’s museums to return to tribes the human remains, burial items and other cultural objects collected from sacred sites since Europeans arrived in the New World.

Kennewick Man’s Caucasoid features do not necessarily mean he is an ancestor of modern Europeans, Chatters said.

It is conceivable his ancestors crossed the Pacific or the Bering land bridge or some other lost link between Asia and North America, he said.

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: KENNEWICK MAN FACTS Associated Press Facts about Kennewick Man: Found - On July 28, 1996, in Columbia River mud at Kennewick by spectators at the annual Columbia Cup hydroplane races. Age - Carbon dating determined the remains are 9,300 to 9,600 years old, one of the oldest human skeletons found in North America. Description - Male, in his 40s or 50s when he died. Narrow, projecting face and long head suggest a Caucasoid person. Near-complete skeleton includes all major bones except the sternum. Injuries - Kennewick Man had suffered numerous broken ribs, a crushed chest, a broken arm and nerve damage in the left arm that left him with diminished use. Cause of death - Likely infection from a spearpoint that broke off in his pelvic bone. Make it so - Archaeologist James Chatters said he believes Kennewick Man resembled actor Patrick Stewart, the captain on the TV show “Star Trek, the Next Generation.” Origins - Chatters, who briefly studied the remains, says Kennewick Man and his contemporaries may have originated in Europe, India, the Middle East, Southern Asia, Pacific islands or the great northern plains that extend from Poland to Alaska and were once connected. Current location - Climate-controlled vault at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland.