Kennewick Man

Date July 28, 1996

The 1996 discovery of ancient human remains on the bank of the Columbia River near Kennewick, Washington, on public land under control of the US Army Corps of Engineers, triggered a decades-long controversy that pitted forensic and cultural anthropologists against American Indians who fought for the right to bury their “Ancient One” with dignity and respect.

Also known as Ancient One

Locale Columbia River near Kennewick, Washington

Key Figures

• Floyd Johnson (b. 1939), coroner of Benton County, Washington, 1989–2007
• Will Thomas (b. 1975), college student who discovered Kennewick man
• Dave Deacy (b. 1977), college student who accompanied Will Thomas
• James C. Chatters (b. 1949), forensic anthropologist, archaeologist, and consultant who was a state crime lab analyst for Washington’s Benton and Franklin counties at the time of the discovery
• John Jelderks (b. 1938), US magistrate judge of the US District Court, Oregon
• Douglas Owsley (b. 1951), forensic osteologist, researcher, and anthropologist with the National Museum of Natural History
• Robson Bonnichsen (1940–2004), director of the Center for the Study of the First Americans
• Doc Hastings (b. 1941), US congressman from Washington from 1995 to 2015

Summary of Event

On July 28, 1996, two college students, Will Thomas and Dave Deacy, happened upon a human skull that was sitting in Lake Wallula, a reservoir along the Columbia River near Kennewick, Washington. The two friends notified local police officers, who contacted the Benton County coroner, Floyd Johnson. Based on the condition of the bones, Johnson decided it would be most prudent to call forensic anthropologist James C. Chatters in to investigate. Chatters’s preliminary findings suggested that the skull’s long, thin face and protruding jaw appeared to be most closely aligned with Caucasoid characteristics, but the wear pattern of the teeth indicated that the remains were ancient. The fact that the bone configuration did not look American Indian and yet the skull appeared to be exceedingly old created great intrigue. Scientists wondered who this man was, where he came from, and what he could reveal about the earliest inhabitants of North America.

During the month following the skull’s discovery, Chatters worked, under a permit granted under a provision of the Archaeological Resources Protection Act of 1979, to uncover the skull’s accompanying well-preserved skeletal remains. The skeleton was found to be that of a forty- to fifty-five-year-old male, approximately 5 feet, 9 inches tall, who showed evidence of having suffered from multiple life traumas. The injuries included a gray area in the right pelvis that computed tomography (CT) scans showed to be a leaf-shaped projectile (arrowhead) dating from 4,500 to 9,000 years ago. Because this object caused more perplexity in determining the age of the remains, Chatters received authorization from the coroner to conduct DNA and radiocarbon analysis. These tests, conducted on the skeleton’s finger, indicated that the individual, who came to be called the Kennewick Man, was a fish eater who lived some 8,500–9,000 years ago, sometime in the period 7300 to 7600 BCE.

On August 30, 1996, four days after the test results were disclosed, the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) declared that because the remains were ancient and found on federal land, the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) of 1990 applied. Under NAGPRA, federal officials must notify American Indian tribes who have inhabited the geographic areas near such discoveries, provide the tribes with the opportunity to show cultural affiliation with the discovered remains, and then return the remains to the tribes if affiliation is shown. The USACE seized the Kennewick Man remains, required all scientific studies on the remains to halt, and declared its intention to return the remains to the five federated tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (Umatilla, Yakama, Nez Perce, Colville, and Wanapum). The news that the remains would likely be returned to the Umatilla for sacred reburial horrified many scientists who saw the well-preserved remains as priceless clues in the mystery of the population of the Americas. In addition, the USACE’s action triggered other ethnic groups to stake their own claims.

In October, eight well-known archaeologists and anthropologists, including Robson Bonnichsen, director of the Center for the Study of the First Americans, and Douglas Owsley of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History, sued the federal government to gain the right to conduct further scientific investigation on Kennewick Man. They asserted that there was a lack of due process in the seizure of the remains and that NAGPRA did not pertain in the case because no direct cultural link between Kennewick Man and the American Indian tribes had been proven. Other groups, including a European religious group, the Asutru Folk Assembly, also filed suits, claiming the right to investigate whether the remains belonged to their ancestors. The claimants understood that the Umatilla planned a quiet hidden burial where the remains of the man they called the Ancient One would be lost to any future research. The scientists contended that further research was vital to learning about Kennewick Man’s life and thus gaining information about North America’s past.

In August 2002, the case Bonnichsen et al. v. United States et al. was heard in the US District Court in Portland, Oregon. Judge John Jelderks concluded that NAGPRA did not apply to Kennewick Man because the government had failed to prove that the skeleton was directly linked to modern American Indians. Because that burden of proof had not been met, Jelderks decided, scientists had the right to access and continue to study the remains under the provisions of the Archaeological Resources Protection Act. In 2004, after an appeal that again temporarily blocked further scientific studies of Kennewick Man, Judge Jelderks’s decision was upheld by in the Ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals.

With access to the remains, which were held for study at the University of Washington’s Burke Museum, an eleven-person team of scientists, led by Owsley, gained new information. The researchers learned that Kennewick Man had suffered several traumas, that his projectile injury came from the front, and that he had been buried with respect. Scientists continued to examine the remains into the twenty-first century, hoping that further testing would reveal more in-depth information on Kennewick Man’s origin. Some early research suggested that he may be genetically most similar to Polynesians or to the Ainu people, who are native to the Japanese islands.

After the Ninth Circuit Court’s decision, a number of attempts were made to reverse its effects through legislation. In 2006, for example, Congressman Doc Hastings of Washington State introduced a bill in the US House of Representatives to clarify NAGPRA. The bill was designed to protect scientists’ right to research ancient remains while respecting American Indians’ tribal rights to their direct ancestors.

Details of Owsley's team's extended research was published in 2014, but the controversy was still unsettled. Then, in June 2015, the results of DNA testing carried out in Denmark were published, confirming that Kennewick Man was genetically most similar to modern American Indians. The findings were an important step in establishing both the heritage of the ancient individual and the overall history of human settlement of North America. The study also led to renewed calls by the Washington governor and others for the remains to be returned to local American Indians, particularly the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation.

In April 2016, a team of scientists at the University of Chicago reported that they had independently confirmed the analysis and results reached by the geneticists in Denmark the previous year through multiple lines of evidence, stating that the Kennewick Man was indeed of American Indian ancestry. With this additional evidence, the USACE declared that the next step of the process would be initiated, which involves determining which of the specific tribes will get to claim the remains for reburial. It was expected that the tribes would work together to establish cultural ties, but some experts predicted that an agreement may not be reached for another year. In the meantime, the skeleton of the Kennewick Man will remain at the Burke Museum. Chatters, who had changed his mind about his original assessment many years ago following subsequent studies of similar remains, supported the results.

Significance

The discovery of the ancient human skeleton dubbed the Kennewick Man by scientists and Ancient One by American Indians stirred debate as to the legal, ethical, moral, and cultural rights of scientists and indigenous peoples. Scientists argued that the remains could possibly shed light on the peopling of the Americas, while American Indians were primarily concerned with respecting their ancestor’s right to a proper reburial. The decision to permit scientific research on Kennewick man was finally settled in court, but the battle exposed a major rift regarding the best approach to handling the remnants of ancient inhabitants. Attempts to modify federal legislation affecting archaeological findings have been ongoing. Many American Indians adhere to the belief that all remains of ancient people found on their traditional lands are the remains of their ancestors. Scientists remain protective of their rights to study skeletons that are not genetically proven to be American Indian. Further attempts to clarify the legislation that affects the finding of human remains on federal lands that were once populated by American Indians have been proposed to help prevent additional ambiguity regarding future vestiges of the legacy of early human beings. Additionally, improved DNA analysis methods and technology will help determine the heritage of human remains more quickly, potentially avoiding such long-standing controversies as that of the Kennewick Man.

Bibliography

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