Dna Tests Begin On Kennewick Man

Scientists have begun trying to extract DNA from Kennewick Man, potentially a decisive step in deciding the origin and disposition of the 9,200-year-old bones.

On Tuesday, the bones were arranged in dozens of boxes on folding tables in the basement of the Burke Museum at the University of Washington in Seattle.

A team of scientists must first find a suitable bone for a DNA sample.

Their goal is to determine whether Kennewick Man can be linked to any existing Indian tribe, which would then receive the remains.

If no tribal link is established, the federal government will keep control - a prospect that worries both Indian leaders who want the bones reburied, and anthropologists who are pushing for more study.

Those in the scientific team say they don’t know whether they can successfully establish a tribal linkage.

The DNA research could produce a proper sample sometime next month. Test results could be available in August.

The bones, shown to reporters Tuesday, were neatly arranged in labeled boxes.

Scientists, all wearing rubber gloves, picked up the bones one at a time.

Ribs were aligned in a semicircle in their box. A leg bone that lay in another bore cracks that resulted from being removed from the Columbia River.

Richard Buck, a member of the Wanapum Band, equated the research to rape.

“No bone was not touched,” he said.

“Every single minute piece was picked up and put down. Every Native American moral law has been broken. The man is laying there by no choice of his own … naked … being violated.”