Wednesday, Feb. 16, 2005

Tribes appeal bones ruling

By Anna King, Herald staff writer

Northwest tribes have filed an appeal in the Kennewick Man case in hopes of being involved in a planned study of the 9,400-year-old bones.

The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled last July that the tribes had no right to influence the study because Kennewick Man was not related to any existing tribes. But the Nez Perce Tribe, Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation and Yakama Indian Nation disagree.

"They have had a plan out there for quite a while, and they are negotiating it with the feds not us," said Audie Huber, intergovernmental affairs manager for the Umatilla Reservation's Department of Natural Resources. "Our voice is not being heard right now. We need some way to participate."

Huber, who has been involved in the case since the bones were found on the banks of the Columbia River in 1996, said the long battle has been difficult and disappointing.

"It's a fundamental right to protect the grave of your ancestor," he said. The tribes made the appeal Monday.

Huber also said the court's decision might come too late for the tribes to have any say in the study.

"The 9th Circuit Court is glacially slow," he said. "We think the decision will come after the study plan is implemented."

James Chatters, the Richland archaeologist who recovered many of Kennewick Man's bones from the riverbank in Columbia Park, said some of the leading scientists in the nation plan to study the bones as early as this spring or summer.

Huber said the tribes' appeal may not help in the Kennewick Man case, but it will influence how other artifacts and remains are dealt with in the future.

The court found Kennewick Man didn't fall under the 1990 Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, which requires museums or other agencies to return remains found to have cultural affiliation with an existing tribe. Huber said the tribe now is fighting for the old bones through the Archaeological Resources Protection Act of 1979, which protects archaeological sites and artifacts.

"There are thousands of collections of Indian artifacts, and the law says that there needs to be consultation with the tribes when those remains are studied," Huber said.

Paula Barran, Portland-based legal counsel to the group of scientists that wants to study the bones, said she thought the study would go ahead as planned.

"The court said the case is over and you've (the tribes) already been heard," she said. "You have made these arguments and lost."

Barren said the scientists took an initial two-day look at the bones a couple of months ago.

"I think everyone was really excited because the best scientists in the world were looking at it for the first time," she said.

Chatters said he is excited he and other scientists will be able to study the bones after nearly nine years of delay.

"I am just holding my breath until it starts," he said.

The study will be carefully conducted and may lend answers to some of Chatters' questions about Kennewick Man while raising others, he said.

"We are doing this in a methodical way," he said. "We don't want to rush in and do it all at once."

Chatters said he would like other scientists to study a chip in Kennewick Man's shoulder blade area to see if it was an injury that happened before he died. Chatters also said he also would like to test some of the soil that coats the inside of the skull to discover the location of Kennewick Man's bones when he died.

"Every time you look at one of these individuals, something new comes out," Chatters said.

Kennewick Man's remains are being stored at the University of Washington's Burke Museum in Seattle.