Thursday, Aug. 05, 2004

Kennewick Man fight persists

By Anna King, Herald staff writer

The eight-year clash over Kennewick Man's remains was settled in July, but how to study the 9,300-year-old bones and where they should go now continues to stir controversy.

"We are not going to go away easily," said Rob Roy Smith, an attorney representing the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Indian Reservation. "Just because these remains are not 'Native American' does not mean that they are not Indian and not of significant cultural importance."

The remains are considered to belong to one of the most complete ancient skeletons ever found. The 9th District Court ruled last month that the remains were not related to the existing tribes, and, therefore, could be studied by scientists.

The scientists asked the 9th District to exclude the tribes from any further involvement with the Kennewick Man case, because they won the court battle. The tribes say they still have a legal right to comment on how the study is conducted and what will become of the ancient remains after the study. They also are concerned the scientists will want to excavate the burial site along the bank of the Columbia River again.

Smith said the tribes do not want to see the burial site disturbed and want to be consulted on what and how studies are done.

"One of the tenets of the tribes' beliefs is that remains should not be disturbed, and if they are disturbed they should be set at peace as soon as possible," he said. "That is still what the tribes are trying to do."

The scientists say the court determined the tribes were not a relative of Kennewick Man and therefore shouldn't have a legal say into how the studies are conducted.

"The only parties in the case should be us and the federal government," said Alan Schneider, the attorney representing the scientists.

Kennewick Man also should be stored in a museum after the studies are completed for other scientists to study in the future, he said. "It should be kept for the American people so that the knowledge that can be obtained from the skeleton can be shared with everyone," he said.

There might be advances in scientific technology or other important questions that could be answered in the future, Schneider said.

An important facet of the argument is that the tribes don't want the scientists to perform any destructive tests, or tests that would destroy skeletal material. The scientists argue that the amount of bone taken for important tests would be minuscule.

"The total amount of bone plus minerals on the bone would be about a gram and a half," Schneider said. "These are very, very small samples. We want to do this to figure out why the radio carbon dates on different bones has varied so widely."

The tribes and the federal government say they will allow study of the bones, but they are throwing up significant road blocks and conditions that the scientists see as unnecessary, Schneider said.

It is unclear when the judge will reach a determination on whether the tribes can legally be excluded from commenting on the Kennewick Man study. Kennewick Man's remains are now stored at the University of Washington's Burke Museum in Seattle.