Research Paper

Research Paper

Introduction

Over the years many Native Americans have bitterly objected to the disturbing of the bones of their ancestors in archaeological digs carried out across the country.

No remains have been contested and debated more than those of Kennewick Man, a skeleton from Kennewick, Washington, located near the Columbia River, and variously dated between 8400 and 9300 years B.P. Kennewick Man had eroded out of the river bank and was recovered by two college students. The remains were transferred by the Army Corps of Engineers to James Chatters, a forensic anthropologist and owner of a local consulting firm.

These concerns brought about the passage of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (1990). Under its terms some 10,000 skeletons had been returned to their tribes by the end of the 20th century, and efforts to repatriate and rebury other remains were ongoing. In 1990 the Native American population in the United States was some 1.9 million, an increase of almost 38% since 1980. Oklahoma, California, Arizona, and New Mexico have the most Native American inhabitants; most Eskimos and Aleuts live in Alaska.

The Ancient One (Kennewick Man)

In 1996, a set of human remains was found in the Columbia River in the state of Washington in the northwestern United States. After a projectile point was found embedded in the pelvis, the bone was subjected to radiocarbon dating and returned an age of about 9,000 years. At that point the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) took over. The Corps of Engineers (the federal agency that controlled the land upon which the remains were found) decided to repatriate the remains to the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, but, before the remains were repatriated, eight anthropologists--Robson Bonnichsen, C. Loring Brace, George W. Gill, C. Vance Haynes Jr., Richard L. Jantz, Douglas W. Owsley, Dennis J. Stanford, and D. Gentry Steele--filed suit in district court to block the return. At issue were three points: the assumption that the skeleton's age automatically meant the individual was "Native American"; the scientists' assertion that the Corps' intent to repatriate the remains would prevent the study of human remains when the outcome of the study would be "of major benefit to the United States"; and the scientists' assertion that their civil rights were being denied by the Corps' action, claiming they were being denied the right to study the remains simply because they were not "Native American."

The Department of the Interior finally determined that the remains were "Native American" as defined under NAGPRA and that the material should be repatriated to the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Reservation based on a "suggestion" of cultural continuity between Kennewick Man and the modem Indian tribes of the area. But once the Department of the Interior's determination of cultural affiliation had been made, the lawsuit was allowed to proceed and the case headed onward.

More than six years after the human remains were discovered; the Magistrate in the case issued his decision on certain aspects ...