Tuesday, Jun. 19, 2001

Decision on bones expected today

By the Herald staff

Today could be a turning point in the tempestuous battle for Kennewick Man.

Magistrate John Jelderks is expected to pass judgment in U.S. District Court in Portland on the Interior Department's three years of work to determine who gets the ancient bones.

Last fall, the federal agency ruled the bones are culturally affiliated with modern tribes and should be returned for reburial. Jelderks could rule today that the government was correct in its process of deciding the bones' affiliation, which would be a victory for the tribes.

The judge also could find the government's process at fault and grant the scientists the right to study Kennewick Man. He also could tell the government to try again.

Regardless, the battle over Kennewick Man is far from over.

The losing side is expected to appeal to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, and the case could go to the U.S. Supreme Court after that.

At least 20 lawyers are expected in court this morning, representing the tribes, scientists, government agencies and other interested groups that have filed briefs with the court.

Meanwhile, the 9,200-year-old bones continue to wait in storage at the University of Wasington's Burke Museum in Seattle, where they were moved from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in October 1998.

Kennewick Man was discovered during the hydroplane races in 1996 in the river along Columbia Park. James Chatters, a forensic scientist and then-consultant to the Benton County coroner, studied the bones and determined that they not only were more than 9,000 years old, but also did not appear to be American Indian in nature.

The discovery caused an uproar with tribes, who claimed the bones under a federal repatriation and reburial law. After the Army Corps of Engineers took the bones from Chatters and decided to give them to the tribes, eight prominent scientists sued to study Kennewick Man, the oldest complete skeleton ever found in North America.