Kennewick Man

The remains of the Kennewick man are one of the oldest and complete remains ever found. The estimated 9,000-year-old skeleton is described as Caucasoid. After the discovery it was described as one of the most complete male skeletons ever unearthed in America. The Kennewick Man remains were the subject of a court battle between researchers who want to learn all they can about “The Ancient One”, and the U.S. Army Corps. The Corps wanted to return the Kennewick Man to his rightful place so that the American Indian tribes can rebury him without the Kennewick Man being studied on. But under United States law human remains cannot be owned by anyone. Even though the Kennewick Man remains were discovered and recovered from federal land and is now

The relationships between Native Americans and Archeologist has been difficult to say the least. In the past archeologists have never been seen in a positive light by Native Americans. The relationship between us has improved with the passing of NAGPRA. However, there are a lot if things that need to be done to make a permeant change. The way to change the relationship between us and them is a simple idea but a difficult undertaking. First we need to make all the laws that involve native American antiquity have more effect. This laws, if broken, should have a real punishment to the people that broke them. If we can show Native American that we are trying to make a change at the governmental level that could translate to a change in community relationships. Additionally, there needs to be more community involvement, whether that is inviting native people work on sites, or having more indigenous archeologist. Overall if we want to continue to learn about the past, archeologists must make a change for the future.

Mortuary remains are a major source of data on human social relations. In this exercise, you will analyze data from a fictive mortuary assemblage (described below and separate data sheet), and then discuss some of the ambiguities and pitfalls of this sort of analysis.

Kennewick Man was found on July 28, 1996 below Lake Wallula, a section of the Columbia River, in Washington. As the owners of the land, the US Army Corps of Engineers (COE) had initial control of the remains. In early inspections Kennewick man was thought to be an early European settler because of the

In 1996 in the Columbia River Valley a pair of teenagers came across a skeletal by the river. These remains belonged to the Kennewick Man who died 9,000 years ago. The skeleton of the Kennewick man is one of the most complete skeletons discovered from that era with over three-hundred bones. The skeleton sparked controversy with Native American tribes claiming him as their ancestor who should be properly reburied. The opposing side would be the scientists claiming he is of polynesian descent, meaning his remains should be kept in a museum. Forensic anthropologists analyzed the skeletal for signs of his descent. By the use of forensic anthropology the bones were examined for wounds that would show his life style, his facial structure, and signs of his diet which all gave evidence of him being of polynesian descent. (Achenbach, 2014)

5) What is housed at the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum that is of interest to the Muwekma, and what are the legal and ethical issues the museum faces with it?

Sometimes the controversy goes beyond disagreement on factual information, such as the age of humanity or source of Earth’s creation, and how we cover this information in schools. In the case of certain American Indian groups, there has been conflict in the actual excavation of artifacts, preventing physical evidence from being utilized for limitless amounts of scientific conclusion. There has been disharmony in the idea of ownership and increased distrust, which is most likely in part due to the American Indians’ deeply regrettable historic relationship with the United States government.

each Federal agency and each museum which has possession or control over holdings or collections of Native American human remains and associated funerary objects shall compile an inventory of such items and, to the extent possible based on information possessed by such museum or Federal agency, identify the geographical and cultural affiliation of such item (Native 1990).

On July 28, 1996, two young men discovered a skull of a man, which was exposed by erosion, on the bank of the Columbia River near Kennewick, Washington. The police were called to investigate and that was when the rest of the skeleton was found. This skeleton was soon named “Kennewick Man,” although the Native American Indians referred to the skeleton as “The Ancient One.” According to the Smithsonian’s top physical anthropologist, Doug Owsley, this was one of America’s most important skeletons. It was an exceptionally rare discovery and for its age, it was one of the most complete skeletons ever found. Scientists said it could provide an extraordinary insight into America’s early inhabitants. Doug Owsley says that Kennewick Man is causing scientists to rethink how humans first came to this continent. After a long process of both controversy and scientific research, conclusions were eventually made about the Ancient One about who he was and where he came from.

The first episode details the performance of a group of Kwakwaka’wakw at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. The Aboriginal migrant hop field workers in the Puget Sound area are the focus of the second episode and the third looks at the legal proceeding of 1906 wherein the Tlingit artist Rudolph Walton endeavors to get his mixed race children accepted to the White public school in Alaska. Raibmon uses these episodes to discuss the implications of authenticity in a historical perspective and to draw connections between the different people in these episodes and how they handled their encounters with each other. Additionally, Raibmon shows how both the Aboriginal and non Aboriginal people in these episodes tackle the ideas of tradition, modernity and progress, among others, and how they shape those to fit their needs in terms of their cultural survival and their goals.

NAGPRA promises Native groups that remains would be returned to them if the remains were associated with their group, however Kennewick man does not necessarily “belong” to any specific group at this point in time. There are two perspectives to this dilemma: the Native perspective valuing the sacredness of the remains, and the scientific perspective valuing the eagerness to study the remains (Lee, 2008). Stories written by Donald Sampson and Rechanda Lee give insight on the Native perspective arguing that science is degrading Native American identity and disrespecting the culture and religion (Lee, 2008). They do not like that the graves of their ancestors are disturbed and dissected to be studied (Sampson, 2008). Traditional histories are important to Native American communities as it provides identity and lineage linked to their respected communities. Natives feel that a group of scientists should not be telling them what their history is as they have faith in what is passed down to them orally (Lee, 2008). Many Natives feel as if scientists need to show respect and let the Native communities be heard. (Lee, 2008). Scientists, however, are addressing Principle No.2 of the Principles of Archaeological Ethics as identifying the remains and associating them to a certain group determines who the remains actually belong to. Both Lee and Sampson argue that using the cranial morphology of Kennewick man to determine his race is the result of irrationality and imagination. Both of the passages that they wrote claim to be addressing the scientific aspect of Kennewick man, however they seem to be writing with a strong emotional language rather than scientific. In Sampson’s case, for example, he seems to be personally attacking the scientists involved with Kennewick man rather than the scientific evidence provided. The only scientific evidence that was addressed in these two

Carl Zimmer’s article, “New DNA results show the Kennewick Man was Native American” focuses on a discovery made by two men wading in the Columbia River July of 1996. These two men had stumbled upon a skull (and after later excavation a complete skeleton) of a mysterious figure over 8,500 years old. Along with this discovery came a multitude of controversy as to where the skeleton had come from, and thereby, who had the rights to his remains. Recent DNA testing was released this past year that suggested that the Kennewick Man had been a Native American, contrary to other beliefs that he had been European. However, while it may be assumed that this discovery would conclude law suits concerning the remains, the dispute continues. Native American history is very rich and not a lot is known about it scientifically due to the deep mistrust between Native Americans and scientists (the Kennewick Man being a single example). Therefore new programs are being established, such as the Summer Internship for Native Americans in Genomic, to administer training to Native Americans so they can learn about their own history.

The police received a call about a fowl stench around Lake Berryessa. They respond with a search of the area to find the nasty smell. They used dogs to detect the scent near an old tree. The police dug up area and encountered the two unknown bodies that have been decaying for a while. They swiftly sent the bones to an anthropologist to try to identify the people and their means of death. They first exampled the skulls, which revealed that one had a more pronounced brow region, a larger jaw, and a larger cranium, they conduced that one of the bodies were male and the other female; this was made evident by the size and spacing of the pelvic bone. The skulls were further exampled and it was revealed that they were both Caucasoid, due to their

ANT 2511: Biological Anthropology Name: Ali Kanaan 08-29-17CASE STUDY #1: The Case of the Headless CorpseTo prepare for this case study, please read:1. The Scientific Method. http://teacher.pas.rochester.edu/phy_labs/AppendixE/AppendixE.html (availableas pdf on course BB)2. “The Case of the Headless Corpse” (This is Chapter 5 in Bass and Jefferson’s Death’s Acre; available as pdf on course BB); 3. Read/ view the materials in the online resources for Chapter 1 in our text (Jurmain et al), particularly the sections on critical thinkingand the Scientific Method.Answer the following questions. Note that you are able to write more than the spaces provided (download this document from BlackBoard and type on it)!1. There are typically four steps

10.7%. This means that one out of ten workers is out of a job. In