A One-to-One Relationship
Justice Jelderks argued that under NAGPRA, to be able to return a particular funerary item or set of skeletal remains, one must identify a one-to-one relationship between the ancient culture and a present day claimant. The Kennewick Man case, he argues, cannot be connected to the claimants for several reasons. First, there are essentially no cultural remains buried with the skeletal remains of Kennewick man--in fact, the only cultural remains found with him was the projectile point buried in his thigh. Even if such an old point could be assigned to a particular cultural group (and it can't), that doesn't necessarily mean that Kennewick Man belonged to that group, in fact it rather implies the opposite. No cultural materials to match to modern-day tribes, so no connection made there. Secondly, the area in which Kennewick Man was found was not one tribe's traditional lands; in fact, he was found in what was considered a crossroads by most of the tribes residing in the Northwestern United States. Not a one-to-one relationship there, either. Thirdly, as has been stated and restated in the press, Kennewick man's skeleton is morphologically different than modern tribes. His skeleton is, however, like others found dated to the same period in the north American continent; but no connection to modern tribes for any of them.Justice Jelderks also argued, rather amazingly in retrospect, that Kennewick Man was not Native American at all under NAGPRA. I'm not sure that makes a lot of sense--so, what is he? chopped liver? Except that--we simply don't have an alternative category for early American residents of undefined ethnic status yet; this debate appears to support the contention that most if not all of our modern ethnic designations are recent developments. But his argument that there is simply not adequate information to connect Kennewick Man with any one (or even any collective) tribal group of our modern day, is a sensible and, more to the point, a defensible argument.
Access to the Skeletal Material Given
So now, pending appeal, the scientists will at long last have access to the Kennewick man skeletal material. The ending is not all that happy, unfortunately. During the three years that the Kennewick Man skeleton resided in the tender hands of the Corps of Engineers, the bones were improperly stored. Bones went missing; a small percentage of them was reburied. Saddest for the scientific value of the bones is the fact that the Corps allowed the Native American community ritual access to the bones--and during those ceremonies sage and cedar were burned on or near the bones, undoubtedly inhibiting several of the scientific studies, including future DNA studies. This is rather ironic, in fact: because it is remotely possible that DNA testing might have connected Kennewick Man with modern day tribes.While the Kennewick Man case is not likely over, this is truly a most interesting wrinkle in the continuing saga of modern science and religion and politics.
Kennewick Man Table of Contents | Part 7: Science, Religion, and Politics | Part 8: The Jelderks Decision | Part 9: Latest News and Information
