The man from Kenwick contradicts the theory according to which all Indians originate in Siberia
Pictured: the man from Kennewick. One of the earliest humans found to date in North America
The Kennewick Man is 9,300 years old, but in some ways he is just as modern as Madonna. For example, he has a personal website on the Internet (www.cr.nps.gov/aad/kennewick). Recently, he has become the favorite of many Indian tribes in the northwest of the United States who visited, and he is about to be the key figure, albeit a silent one, in a principled lawsuit in the USA.
The remains of the man from Kennewick were discovered in 1996 on a river bank near the city of Kennewick in the state of Washington. At first it was thought that these were the bones of a white settler, but carbon 14 tests revealed that the bones belong to one of the earliest humans found to date in North America. Moreover, its skeletal characteristics differ from those of modern Indians, raising questions about its origins and the identity of the first settlers in North America.
It seems with certainty that the origin of the Indians living today in America is related to the peoples of Siberia and it is assumed that their ancestors crossed the Bering Gulf when it was still dry, during the last ice age. However, most paleo-anthropologists believe that the Kennewick man's origin is from Polynesia and not from Siberia, and therefore it is assumed that his ancestors arrived on the continent on ships.
However, five Indian tribes dispute this version. They are claiming the man from Kennewick, according to the law "for the preservation and restoration of Native American graves" (NAGPRA), which allows them to receive art objects and the bones of their ancestors found in museum collections. These tribes claim that the law gives them possession of the man from Kenwick, whom they want to bury as a tribesman.
On September 25, the federal government gave its consent to this. Bruce Babbitt, the US Secretary of the Interior and the ultimate authority on the matter since the remains of the Kennewick man were found on land controlled by his office, said the remains should be handed over to the tribes. While true, Babbitt is aware that the tribes' connection to the McKenwick man is almost as loose as Hillary Clinton's to Brooklyn. But one of the groups, the "Confederation of Tribes of the Umatilla Reservation" in the state of Oregon, claimed that the man from Kennewick fits in one way or another in their oral history, ten thousand years old. Babbitt was convinced that the bones should be transferred to them.
However, this will not be done soon. Eight researchers represented by Alan Schneider, a lawyer from Portland, Oregon, are going to put the government's decision to a legal test. According to them, there is no real kinship between the man from Kenwick and those tribes.
In view of the great obscurity that prevails in the study of human bones in the Americas (graves have been looted and in some cases the bones of those who died recently ended up in museums as ancient bones), it is not difficult to understand the desire of the tribes that even those who are not necessarily related to their ancestors will be treated as human beings, and not relics. However, the government's decision does not serve science or the tribes. It seems more like a political move designed to please the tribes and their supporters, rather than a serious effort to discover the secret of the man from Kennewick.
It is possible that wiser people would have found a way to convince the tribes to adopt a more moderate position. But buried bones cannot reveal the Sudan and science will lose if the anthropologists fighting in court lose. The tribes demanding to receive the man from Kenwick will be seen as those who are engaged in accumulating points, and not as those who take part in an in-depth discussion about the study of the past, which does not belong exclusively to them.
(Originally published on 1.10)
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