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September
4, 2002 12:20 p.m.
Free
at Last!
A
victory for science in the Kennewick Man case.
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cientists
may study Kennewick Man, ruled a federal magistrate judge last Friday
in a case surrounding a set of controversial human remains that could
hold keys to understanding the prehistoric settlement of the Americas.
It is a victory of sound science over identity politics, and it also represents
a thorough rebuke of the Clinton administration.
The
73-page opinion, written by judge John Jelderks, cast aside a ruling
by former secretary of the interior Bruce Babbitt giving the 9,400-year-old
skeleton to a coalition of Indian tribes for reburial. This move prompted
eight eminent anthropologists to sue, an action that temporarily blocked
a reburial that would have destroyed the remains. (Click here
to read statement from the plaintiffs and access a link to Jelderks's
decision.)
Kennewick
Man — so named because he was discovered in a bank by the Columbia
River near Kennewick, Wash. — is interesting because his bones appear
to contain "Caucasoid" traits not found in modern Indian populations.
This isn't to say he was white, because nobody knows the color of his
skin and few believe that today's racial categories can be usefully projected
upon the ancient past. Some scientists think Kennewick Man shares traits
with Southeast Asian populations, or perhaps the Ainu, an aboriginal Japanese
group. Whatever the truth, his remains deserve careful study so we may
increase our knowledge of how the peopling of the New World occurred.
A
small group of Indian activists, whose views don't necessarily represent
those of Indians generally, had petitioned the government under the auspices
of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA)
to have the bones turned over to them. Babbitt agreed, even though the
law requires Indians to demonstrate a cultural affiliation with any remains
they hope to claim — a fool's errand when the bones in question are
as old as Kennewick Man's.
Plaintiff
attorney Alan Schneider estimates that the government already has blown
$3 million on the case, all to satisfy the imperatives of multicultural
politics rather than follow the letter of the law or stand up for rational
science. The Clinton administration was unwise to proceed as it did, and
now it has been slapped down with a robust ruling from a judge who studied
some 20,000 pages of documents.
The
Bush administration faces a decision about whether to appeal. It should
decline, and let this victory for a common appreciation our country's
past remain in place.
(For
more information about Kennewick Man and other ancient human remains,
visit the Friends
of America's Past website.)
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