Friday, Aug. 30, 2002

Judge says scientists can study Kennewick Man

By The Associated Press

Download Judge Jelderks' ruling (PDF format)

A federal judge on Friday ordered the U.S. government to let scientists study the bones of Kennewick Man, an ancient skeleton discovered in 1996 on the banks of the Columbia River.

The 9,300-year-old bones have been the center of an intense legal battle between scientists, who want to study the remains, and the federal government, which had ruled the bones belong to Northwest tribes who claim the remains as an ancient tribal member and want to bury them.

"Allowing study is fully consistent with applicable statutes and regulations, which are clearly intended to make archaeological information available to the public through scientific research," wrote U.S. Magistrate John Jelderks.

The judge had said he felt the corps made a "hasty decision" to recognize a tribal claim to the bones.

He has also criticized the government for delaying tests on the age of the bones and delaying its response to questions about determining cultural affiliation with modern tribes.

Scientists want to study the skeleton to see if it represents some unknown source of migration to North America apart from the traditional theory of people walking from Asia across a land bridge to North America.

But five tribes along the Columbia River are seeking possession of the bones to bury them - and have been backed by the U.S. government.

The bones bones were found in July 1996 along the banks of the Columbia River near Kennewick, Wash., during annual hydroplane races. They are being stored at the University of Washington's Burke Museum until the case is resolved.

Scientists argued that former Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt overstepped his authority by ruling the skeleton was "culturally affiliated" with Northwest tribes. Babbitt justified his decision by arguing the tribes had an "oral tradition" of history in the general geographic area where the bones were found.

Babbitt was acting under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990, a law intended to prevent theft and illegal trafficking of Indian artifacts, protect tribal burial sites and restore the remains of ancestors to the tribes.

The law says that federal agencies or museums shall return remains or associated objects to tribes that request them and can "show cultural affiliation by a preponderance of the evidence based upon geographical, kinship, biological, archaeological, anthropological, linguistic, folkloric, oral traditional, historical, or other relevant information or expert opinion."

The scientists, however, argued that no group can establish a direct link that extends back 9,000 years by any of those means.

"Babbitt said oral tradition trumped everything else," said anthropologist Richard Jantz at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, one of the scientists who sued the government to block the return of the bones to the tribes.

Dana Perino, spokeswoman for the Justice Department in Washington, D.C., said government attorneys would have to review the ruling before they could comment.

The case has cost taxpayers an estimated $3 million, according to lawyers for the scientists.