KENNEWICK MAN

CLASS ROOM FORMAT

AAPS

OCTOBER 2008

Kennewick Man, The Power of First Impressions

By Rick Osmon,Moderator, blogtalkradio.comloopa.loopa.cafeScholar of many topics about Ancient America

On July 28, 1996two young men

found a human skull in the Columbia River at Kennewick, WA.

James Chatters, a forensic anthropologist, was invited to conduct skeletal forensics.He recovered scattered bones and began to make observations

WASHINGTON

KENNEWICK

YAKIMA

Possible European traits:

how the nose projected

how the face projected,

narrow face, delicate lower jaw,

long, narrow cranium,

absence of flaring

cheekbones.

KENNEWICK MAN HAD

PROJECTILE POINT

LEAF SHAPED

IN BUTTOCK

COMMON BUT OLD

CALCIFIED INTO BONE

MAN NOT A RECENT SETTLER

PROJECTILE POINT

SERRATED CASCADE PROJECTILE

TYPICAL 8500 BP TO 4500 BP

BUT SIMILAR STYLES IN USE

IN WESTERN NORTH AMERICA

INTO NINETEENTH CENTURY

COMMUNICATIONSFORENSICS EXPERT (CHATTERS) CORONER ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS AMERICAN INDIANS

SKELETON WAS NOT LIKEAMERICAN INDIAN or

Was a TRAPPER EXPLORER

RADIO CARBON and DNA tests ordered

RADIO CARBON RESULTS

8410 +/- 60 BP

SO …..

MUST BE AMERICAN INDIAN

SUBJECT TO

NATIVE AMERICAN

GRAVES PROTECTION ACT

NAGPRA

ARMY CORP OF ENGINEERS

“PULLED OUT ALL STOPS”

TO GIVE BONES TO

AMERICAN INDIANS

UNDER NAGPRA

SO BONES COULD BE

SWIFTLY REBURIED.

Scott Malcomson New York Times

Why Gov. action important

Interviewed parties (No Government officials.)

ISSUES:

Race Related laws

DNA

Repeated test results not accepted.

Always caucasoid ?

Gov. blamed contamination

Contamination is problem.

Why all the hubbub. Bub?

If KM is not American Indian, then social, cultural, and legal factors are affected.

KM ethincity can upset recognition of tribal rights.

Also questions national Legal status.

Robson Bonnichsen:

"that the earliest inhabitants of this continent may have no modern descendants. . . .

Multiple colonizing groups appear to be represented and

many of the oldest studied skeletons have strong Caucasian skeletal features."

CONCLUSION

KENNEWICK MAN APPEARSTO BE CAUCASIAN