Kennewick Man, or The Ancient One, was a Native American man who is believed to have lived about 8,400 years ago.
His remains, which were nearly complete, were discovered about 10 feet from the shore of the Columbia River in Eastern Washington.
Last week, Sen. Patty Murray introduced legislation that would return the remains to a coalition of Columbia Basin tribes.
This may seem like some old guy’s body being returned to where it was found, but it’s so much more than that.
Presuming that scientists’ calculations are correct, Kennewick Man was alive around 6000 BC. To give you an idea of how long ago that was, rice was first being domesticated around this time in the Pearl River Valley region of China.
Kennewick Man was found in 1996 at the bottom of the Columbia River by two men in Columbia Park, about 10 feet off shore. The park is owned by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers also owned Hanford Engineer Works until 1947 when World War II ended.
The relationship between the federal government and the tribes in that area can be described as “rocky.”
After living there for centuries, Native Americans on the Hanford Reach were forced out by the federal government in 1943 to make way for the production of plutonium that would eventually fuel the Fat Man bomb that was detonated over Nagasaki, Japan.
When the leaders of the Hanford project and the prime contractor, DuPont Company, were scouting for a location, they were looking for a remote piece of land that was relatively vacant.
The site they chose was just that, for the most part. It did have two small towns nearby and a large group of Native Americans that used those lands for foraging and fishing.
One of the town’s structures, most notably a high school, is still partially standing. Even some of the sidewalks still exist.
During the construction of Hanford and the nuclear production thereafter, the cities of Kennewick, Pasco and Richland exploded – pardon the pun – in population.
So you see, the fact that this man’s remains were even found, almost completely together, 8,400 years later is remarkable.
The other part of this story is whether science should have trumped culture and tradition.
In 2004, a federal court ruled in favor of a group of scientists who wanted to continue studying the skeleton.
When the body was first recovered, initial research by archaeologist James Chatters showed the bones might not be Native American. But just two months ago on June 18, new findings were released from Eske Willerslev at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark revealing genetic evidence the man is in fact Native American and is directly linked to the Columbia Basin tribes.
Perhaps, in this case, the science had to happen in order for the culture and tradition to prevail in the end.
Without the ruling in 2004, the scientific evidence that was discovered in Denmark may not have come to fruition.
Hopefully now that it is official by all American standards, the remains of Kennewick Man can go home to his family, his tribe.
Note: Kennewick Man’s remains are stored at the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture, which is located on the University of Washington campus. However, the remains are not in display.
