Corps Awards Contract For Burial Of Kennewick Man Site Gorton Says He’ll Continue To Fight Plan But Concedes It May Be Too Late
Despite efforts in Congress to block the project, the Army Corps of Engineers announced Wednesday it already has awarded a contract to bury the site where the 9,200-year-old Kennewick Man was found along the Columbia River.
Sen. Slade Gorton, R-Wash., said he would continue efforts to halt the plans to cover the shoreline where the ancient skeleton was found in 1996.
But he said it may be too late, given the corps’ plans to begin the reburial later this week and the fact the legislation that would prohibit the action is unlikely to be signed into law before next week.
“In all my years of dealing with the Army Corps of Engineers, I have never seen them move this fast on any issue,” said Gorton, a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee who plans to voice his displeasure to corps officials during a budget hearing today.
The corps awarded the contract on Tuesday to an Idaho company - Earth Construction Inc., of Orofino - but kept it secret until Wednesday afternoon as the Senate neared a vote on a comprehensive spending bill including Gorton’s amendment.
Gorton’s proposal says the corps shall not “stabilize, cover or permanently alter the land within 100 yards of the place where any part of the Kennewick Man remains were found” without a court order.
Scientists maintain they will not be able to study the site if the corps goes through with its plan to cover the shoreline with rocks, dirt and plants, or “riprap.”
Gorton said he believes the corps’ efforts will result in “the destruction of an archeological site.”
The corps and Indian tribes contend that dirt, rocks and plants should be dumped on the site to prevent water erosion and to protect any additional bones from scavengers.
Dutch Meier, a spokesman for the corps’ district office in Walla Walla had no formal comment when contacted on Tuesday. He told The Associated Press on Wednesday morning he could release no information about whether the corps was moving ahead with the contract.
Later Wednesday, after it had been leaked by aides to Gorton, the corps issued a statement announcing that it had awarded the contract on Tuesday. Kennewick Man - a skeleton later dated at 9,200 years old - was found partially buried in July 1996. The bones are controversial because some initial examinations indicated they may have features not found in present-day Indians.