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.
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