Kennewick Man and Columbus Day

Nine thousand years ago a man died along the Columbia River.  About 40 years old, he stood 5 feet 7 inches tall and his 160 pounds were all lean, compact strength.  He was no stranger to injury.  In his life, he had skull injuries, 5 broken ribs and a spear point lodged in his pelvic bones.  In each case, he recovered, which means he had someone to care for him.  At the time of his death, cause unknown, he was buried with dignity.  

            He is called Kennewick Man.  He came to North America long before the peoples currently called Native Americans arrived.  DNA evidence proves he is not related to them.  If there is a real, “first” American, it is this man, most closely related to two far flung groups: Polynesians and the Ainu of Japan.  If you are a Native American, and think you have an historic right of ownership to North America, look over your shoulder.  Kennewick man not only predates you, but he did not even come via the Berengia land bridge.  He is part of a seafaring group of people lost forever from our knowledge, save for the famous skeleton found by two college students walking the shores of the Columbia River. 

            In 1996 the bones of Kennewick Man were identified for what they are, this continent’s oldest fossil remains.  Immediately, a storm of protest erupted.   Native American’s claimed he was one of their own and wanted him back for proper burial.  They are sticking to this story even in the face of physical and genetic testing to the contrary.  Then the Army Corps of Engineers claimed ownership since it was found on their land.  They demanded that all scientific study stop (it turns out they wanted the skeleton as a bargaining chip with the local tribes vis a vis fishing and mineral rights). 

            At about the time that a boat load of self-serving, bureaucratic scat started hitting the fan, James Chatters, a local archaeologist, called in the big guns: he contacted Douglas Owsley of the National Museum of Natural History.   Owsley is not just an expert, he is the expert in ancient American remains.  When Owsley and his colleagues found out that the Army Corp of Engineers had taken custody of the skeleton with intentions to give it to the local tribes, they did the impossible, and sued the government.

Owsley ended up facing threats from the justice department, criticism from his peers, and lawyers from the Corps of Engineers, the Army and the Department of the Interior.  To make a very long story short, they won—sort of.   They were given 16 days of limited study of the skeleton with the corps acting as obstructionists the whole way.

The conclusions of the study are what the Indians do not want us to find out.  Native Americans are not the first humans on this continent; they are just the ones that won the competition for the land.  This competition was repeated when Europeans came, with different results.  When I hear people proclaim Columbus Day as a day of subjugation for Indians I hear only the whining of people who don’t know or understand history.  We treated the Native Americans disgracefully, but they didn’t treat each other any better.  They practiced slavery, infanticide, torture, duplicity and war.  We brought smallpox to them, and they brought syphilis to us.  Sounds like a wash if you ask me.  We won, so we get blamed, but our misconduct makes them victims, not saints.  I only hope the Borg treat us better when they finally get here.

Read Kennewick Man: The Scientific Investigation of an Ancient American Skeleton (Peopling of the Americas Publication) and keep the faith.