July 20, 2004

KENNEWICK MAN will be studied by scientists. The U.S. Justice Dept. loses its politically motivated case against the scientific community. Got to love it.

For the full story of Kennewick Man, don't miss the Tri-City Herald's Kennewick Man Virtual Interpretive Center.

UPDATE: on the role of the U.S. Justice Dept.: "The battle over the bones was often described as a collision between scientific inquiry and tribal rights. At its core, though, it was a new front in the ongoing war over the origin of the human species. The tribes took a faith-based view in arguing the skeleton was ancestral to today's Indians and should be reburied. As Armand Minthorn of Oregon's Umatilla Tribe said: "We already know what happened 10,000 years ago. We know we have always been there. The scientists cannot accept that." It is radical that two federal agencies agreed, twice deeding the skeleton to the tribes on the basis of Indian oral histories and spiritual allegories. This was done out of sensitivity to the tribes. But scientifically it is akin to citing a literal reading of the Bible to block the study of evolution. At trial, the government even argued that if someone found 150,000-year-old skeletons from the dawn of Homo sapiens � an "Adam and Eve," one attorney said � the remains would automatically be deemed ancestral to today's tribes and reburied. Scientists were flabbergasted that "ownership of all human history had been granted to one group," said Cleone Hawkinson, a Portland anthropologist. "Science was under attack. Someone had to stand up and defend it." Posted by Greg Ransom | TrackBack