The Ancient One’s Legacy: Kennewick Man and the Battle for America’s Past
The sun beat down on the banks of the Columbia River in southeastern Washington State that sweltering July day in 1996 when two college students, watching a hydroplane race, stumbled upon a discovery that would ignite a two-decade-long legal, scientific, and spiritual firestorm. What they found – a nearly complete human skeleton eroding from the muddy bank – was soon identified as one of the oldest and most controversial human remains ever found in North America. He would become known globally as Kennewick Man, or more reverently by local Indigenous tribes as "The Ancient One." His story is a compelling saga of identity, science, sovereignty, and the enduring quest to understand who we are and where we come from.
Upon the initial examination by forensic anthropologist Dr. James Chatters, the skeleton presented an enigma. Radiocarbon dating quickly established an astonishing age: approximately 9,000 years old. But it was Chatters’ preliminary morphological assessment that truly sparked the controversy. Based on cranial measurements and features, he initially described the individual as having "Caucasoid-like" characteristics, prompting immediate headlines that spoke of a possible European presence in North America millennia before Columbus. This early, and ultimately misleading, interpretation would fuel years of public fascination and scientific debate, challenging long-held assumptions about the peopling of the Americas.
The idea of a non-Native American ancient inhabitant sent shockwaves through both the scientific community and Indigenous nations. For scientists, Kennewick Man represented an unparalleled opportunity to study a remarkably preserved individual from a critical period of human migration. His robust build, standing around 5’7" (tall for his era), and a healed spear point embedded in his hip, offered tantalizing clues about the harsh lives of early inhabitants. Here was a potential "missing link," a key to unlocking the mysteries of who the first Americans truly were and how they arrived on the continent. Was he part of an earlier, distinct migratory wave? Did he represent a population that predated or was different from the ancestors of modern Native Americans? These were the questions that fueled the scientific desire for extensive study.
However, for a coalition of five Columbia Plateau tribes – the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, the Nez Perce Tribe, the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation, the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, and the Wanapum Band – Kennewick Man was unequivocally an ancestor. His discovery on their ancestral lands, along a river central to their spiritual and cultural life, meant he was one of their own, a "Tewee" (elder) whose remains deserved respect and reburial according to their traditions. They asserted their rights under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), a landmark 1990 federal law designed to protect Indigenous burial sites and facilitate the return of human remains and cultural items to their lineal descendants or culturally affiliated tribes.
The clash was immediate and intense. Scientists, led by Dr. Douglas Owsley of the Smithsonian Institution and Dr. Dennis Stanford of the National Museum of Natural History, argued that the remains were too old and too ambiguous in their initial "Caucasoid" assessment to be definitively linked to modern Native Americans. They contended that NAGPRA should not apply, as cultural affiliation could not be established without further, invasive study. To return the remains without thorough examination, they argued, would be a monumental loss for humanity’s understanding of its own past. Owsley famously stated, "These are the bones of a unique individual that could provide crucial data on the peopling of the Americas. To simply rebury them without study would be a scientific tragedy."
The tribes, in turn, found the scientific demands for study deeply offensive and disrespectful. Armand Minthorn, a board member for the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, articulated their position eloquently: "Our religious beliefs and practices call for the immediate reburial of our deceased. Our people have been here since the beginning of time. These are our ancestors, and they should be returned to the ground. This is our belief, our way of life." For them, the scientific quest for knowledge was secondary to the sacred duty to protect their ancestor and allow his spirit to rest. The argument was not merely about bones; it was about sovereignty, cultural identity, and the painful legacy of colonial exploitation that had historically denied Indigenous peoples control over their heritage and lands.
This fundamental disagreement plunged Kennewick Man into a protracted legal battle that would span nearly a decade. In 2000, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which managed the land where the remains were found, sided with the tribes, determining that Kennewick Man was indeed Native American and should be repatriated. However, a group of eight prominent scientists, including Owsley and Stanford, filed a lawsuit challenging this decision, arguing that the Corps’ determination was premature and lacked sufficient scientific basis. The legal wrangling escalated, moving through various courts, with the scientists eventually prevailing in 2004 when the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the government had failed to prove a cultural affiliation under NAGPRA, thus allowing the scientists to study the remains.
The ensuing years saw extensive, albeit non-destructive, analyses of the skeleton. Researchers examined bone structure, diet through isotopic analysis, and ancient injuries. They confirmed the individual was a hunter-gatherer, likely subsisting on a diet rich in marine animals, and had endured a life of physical hardship, including several broken bones and the embedded spear point. These studies provided fascinating insights into the life of an ancient American, but they still couldn’t definitively resolve the question of genetic lineage that the tribes sought and that the scientific community increasingly believed was necessary.
The true turning point arrived in 2015 with the advent of advanced ancient DNA sequencing techniques. A team of scientists led by Dr. Eske Willerslev at the University of Copenhagen, working in collaboration with scientists at the University of California, Santa Cruz, successfully extracted and sequenced DNA from a small bone fragment from Kennewick Man. The results were unambiguous and utterly transformative. The DNA analysis conclusively showed that Kennewick Man was genetically more closely related to modern Native Americans, particularly the Colville and other tribes of the Pacific Northwest, than to any other population in the world. The "Caucasoid-like" features, it turned out, were simply morphological variations common in early human populations and not indicative of European ancestry.
This scientific breakthrough effectively ended the long-standing legal and scientific debate over Kennewick Man’s identity. The DNA evidence provided the definitive cultural affiliation that NAGPRA required. In February 2016, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced that, based on the new genetic evidence, Kennewick Man was indeed culturally affiliated with Native Americans. This paved the way for his repatriation.
On February 18, 2017, nearly 21 years after his discovery, the remains of Kennewick Man were finally returned to the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation. In a private ceremony steeped in tradition and reverence, attended by members of the claimant tribes and a handful of officials, The Ancient One was reburied at an undisclosed location in the Columbia Plateau. For the tribes, it was a profound moment of healing and closure, a long-awaited homecoming for an ancestor whose spirit had been restless for too long. "This is a great day for our people," said Aaron Ashley, chairman of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, reflecting the collective relief and spiritual satisfaction.
The story of Kennewick Man leaves a complex and enduring legacy. It highlighted the tensions inherent in balancing scientific inquiry with Indigenous cultural rights and religious beliefs. It demonstrated the power of ancient DNA to resolve long-standing mysteries and, in this case, to affirm Indigenous connections to their ancestral lands and past. It also spurred important discussions within the archaeological and anthropological communities about ethical practices, collaboration with Indigenous communities, and the need for greater respect for cultural heritage.
While the legal battle over Kennewick Man is over, his story continues to resonate. It serves as a potent reminder of the deep history of human presence in the Americas, a history that is far more complex and ancient than often imagined. It underscores the importance of NAGPRA as a mechanism for justice and reconciliation, even as debates continue about its implementation and scope. Most importantly, Kennewick Man’s journey from a riverbank discovery to a globally recognized symbol of ancestral connection has ultimately fostered a greater understanding – not just of the science of human migration, but of the profound spiritual and cultural ties that bind people to their past, their land, and their ancestors. The Ancient One, after his long and tumultuous journey, finally rests, his legacy etched into the fabric of America’s shared, yet often contested, history.
