"Kennewick Man on Trial" is the focus of a new exhibit at SunWatch Indian Village in Dayton from 25 April to 21 June 2009.  Developed by the Burke Museum in Washington, the exhibition presents "various points-of-view on issues under debate, including federal law and Native American human remains, how people first came to the Americas, and changing ideas about race."

The Ohio Archaeological Council (OAC) was actively involved in the litigation surrounding Kennewick Man and many of its members are involved in research related to how people first came to the Americas.  The OAC encourages on-going public discussion about the issues at the heart of the Kennewick Man controversy and so we encourage you to visit the exhibit.  The Burke Museum website devoted to the "Kennewick Man on Trial" exhibit includes a list of further readings, but none of these are more recent than 1999.  The following summary includes a brief history of the OAC's involvement in the case along with a supplementary list of more recent and alternative books and articles related to Kennewick Man and how we know what we know about the very first Americans.

In 2002, the U.S. District Court of Oregon ruled that former Secretary of the Interior Babbit's decision to prohibit scientific study of Kennewick Man and repatriate the human remains to a coalition of Native American tribes under the provisions of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) was illegal. The District Court determined that NAGPRA did not apply to human remains of such antiquity, and permitted scientists to study the ancient skeleton. The Department of the Interior and a coalition of Native American tribes appealed the District Court's decision to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

At the request of OAC members Brad Lepper and Al Tonetti, the latter then Chair of the OAC’s Native American Concerns Committee, the OAC's Board of Directors decided to file an Amicus Curiae (Friend of the Court) brief with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in support of the U.S. District Court's decision. Brad and Al worked with former OAC member and attorney Brad Baker, working pro bono, on the brief. The brief focused on standards of evidence used in determining cultural affiliation under NAGPRA.

In 2004, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the decision of the district court affirming that "Kennewick Man's remains are not Native American within the meaning of NAGPRA and that NAGPRA does not apply to them."  Scientific study of the remains of Kennewick Man has proceeded:  http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/columnist/vergano/2006-02-27-kennewick-man_x.htm.

In 2005, Brad and Al again authored an Amicus Curiae brief in support of the Bureau of Land Management’s decision that there was no shared group identify between the 9,000-year-old Spirit Cave Man remains and the Fallon Paiute-Shoshone Tribe, who had requested repatriation under NAGPRA.  This brief is also available in the news archive on the OAC’s website.  The outcome of the Spirit Cave Man case remains uncertain:  http://www.friendsofpast.org/spirit-cave/.

SunWatch Musem webpage devoted to "Kennewick Man on Trial":

http://www.sunwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=94:kennewick-man&catid=4:special-events&Itemid=8.

Burke Museum list of resources:

http://www.washington.edu/burkemuseum/kman/newsfurther.php.

 

 

SUGGESTED READINGS

KENNEWICK MAN: DISCOVERY AND CONTROVERSY

Websites

National Park Service, Kennewick Man

http://www.nps.gov/history/archeology/kennewick/.

Tri-City Herald's Kennewick Man website

http://www.tri-cityherald.com/kman/.

PBS, NOVA, Kennewick Man website

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/first/kennewick.html.

Friends of America's Past, Kennewick Man website

http://www.friendsofpast.org/kennewick-man/.

Ohio Archaeological Council, Friend of the Court Brief in Kennewick Man case

http://www.ohioarchaeology.org/joomla/index.php?option=com_remository&Itemid=49&func=fileinfo&id=13.

 

 

Books

Benedict, Jeff

2003  No Bone Unturned: the adventures of a top Smithsonian forensic scientist and the legal battle for America's oldest skeletons.  HarperCollins, New York.

Burke, Heather, Claire Smith, Dorothy Lippert, Joe Watkins, and Larry Zimmerman, editors

2008 Kennewick Man: Perspectives on the Ancient One.  Left Coast Press, Walnut Creek, California.

Chatters, James C.

2001  Ancient Encounters: Kennewick Man and the First Americans.  Simon & Schuster, New York.

Downey, Roger

2000  Riddle of the Bones: politics, science, race, and the story of Kennewick Man.  Copernicus, New York.

Thomas, David Hurst

2001  Skull Wars Kennewick Man, Archaeology, And The Battle For Native American Identity.  Basic Books, New York.

 

 

Articles

Gerstenblith, Patty

2002  Cultural significance and the Kennewick skeleton: some thoughts on the resolution of cultural heritage disputes.  In Claiming the stones/naming the bones: cultural property and the negotiation of national and ethnic identity, edited by Elazar Barkan and Ronald Bush, pp. 162-197.  Getty Publications, Los Angeles.

Lepper, Bradley T.

2002  Judge rules scientists can study Kennewick Man.  Mammoth Trumpet 18 (1):1-3, 18-19.  Available online at: http://www.centerfirstamericans.com/mammoth/issues/Volume-18/vol18_num1.pdf; site last viewed 10 February 2009.

2003  Native Americans appeal Kennewick Man decision.  Mammoth Trumpet 18 (2):1-3.  Available online at: http://www.centerfirstamericans.com/mammoth/issues/Volume-18/vol18_num2.pdf; site last viewed 10 February 2009.

2003 Kennewick Man ruling defended in U.S. Court of Appeals.  Mammoth Trumpet 18 (4):3, 10-11, 18-20.  Available online at: http://www.centerfirstamericans.com/mammoth/issues/Volume-18/vol18_num4.pdf; site last viewed 10 February 2009.

2003  Major decision: Kennewick Man case.  Mammoth Trumpet 19 (1):1, 3-4, 18-19.  Available online at: http://www.centerfirstamericans.com/mammoth/issues/Volume-19/vol19_num1.pdf; site last viewed 10 February 2009.

2004  Kennewick Man decision upheld by Court of Appeals.  Mammoth Trumpet 19 (2):1-2, 18-19. Available online at: http://www.centerfirstamericans.com/mammoth/issues/Volume-19/vol19_num2.pdf; site last viewed 10 February 2009.

2004  Kennewick Man still in legal limbo.  Mammoth Trumpet 20 (1):1, 15-16, 20.  Available online at: http://www.centerfirstamericans.com/mammoth/issues/Volume-20/vol20_num1.pdf; site last viewed 10 February 2009.

2005  Dept. of the Interior stands up for science.  Mammoth Trumpet 20 (4):1-5, 20.  Available online at: http://www.centerfirstamericans.com/mammoth/issues/Volume-20/vol20_num4.pdf; site last viewed 10 February 2009.

 

Owsley, Douglas W. and Richard L. Jantz

2002  Kennewick Man – a kin? Too distant. In Claiming the stones/naming the bones: cultural property and the negotiation of national and ethnic identity, edited by Elazar Barkan and Ronald Bush, pp. 141-161.  Getty Publications, Los Angeles.

Preston, Douglas

1997  The Lost Man.  New Yorker 73(16):70-81.

Seidemann, Ryan M.

2003  Time for a change? The Kennewick Man case and its implications for the future of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act.  West Virginia Law Review 106:149-176.  Available online at http://www.friendsofpast.org/pdf/seidemann.pdf; site last viewed on 14 January 2008.

 

NAGPRA: THE NATIVE AMERICAN GRAVES PROTECTION AND REPATRIATION ACT

Websites

Friends of Amerca's Past NAGPRA Website

http://www.friendsofpast.org/nagpra/.

National Park Service NAGPRA Website

http://www.nps.gov/history/nagpra/.

Society for American Archaeology Repatriation Archive

http://rla.unc.edu/saa/repat/.

 

Books

Weiss, Elizabeth

2008  Reburying the past: the effects of repatriation and reburial on scientific inquiry.  Nova Science Publishers, New York.

 

Articles

Hall, Teri R. and Jeanette Wolfley

2003  A survey of tribal perspectives on NAGPRA: repatriation and study of human remains.  The SAA Archaeological Record 3(2):27-34.  Available online at http://www.saa.org/publications/theSAAarchRec/mar03.pdf; site last viewed 16 January 2009.

Ousley, Stephen D., William T. Billeck, and R. Eric Hollinger

2005  Federal legislation and the role of Physical Anthropology in repatriation.  Yearbook of Physical Anthropology 48:2-32.

Seidemann, Ryan M.

2003  Congressional intent: What is the purpose of NAGPRA?  Mammoth Trumpet 18(3):1-2, 19-20.

http://www.centerfirstamericans.com/mammoth/issues/Volume-18/vol18_num3.pdf; site last viewed 10 February 2009.

2006 The reason behind the rules: the Archaeological Resources Protection Act of 1979 and scientific study. bepress Legal Series.  Working Paper 1874; available online at:  http://law.bepress.com/expresso/eps/1874/; site last viewed 14 January 2009.

2008  Altered Meanings: the Department of the Interior’s rewriting of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act to regulate culturally unidentifiable human remains" ExpressO; available online at: http://works.bepress.com/ryan_seidemann/2; site last viewed on 14 January 2009.

Springer, James W.

2006  Scholarship vs. repatriation.  Academic Questions 19(1):6-36.

Walker, Phillip L.

2000  Bioarchaeological ethics: a historical perspective on the value of human remains.  In Biological Anthropology of the human skeleton, edited by M. Anne Katzenberg and Shelley R. Saunders, pp. 3-39.  Wiley-Liss, New York.

 

ARCHAEOLOGY AND THE PEOPLING OF THE AMERICAS

Websites

Center for the Study of the First Americans Website

http://www.centerfirstamericans.com/.

Friends of America's Past Earliest Americans Website

http://www.friendsofpast.org/earliest-americans/.

Ohio Historical Society, Virtual First Ohioans: Paleoindians

http://66.195.173.140/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=40.

Paleoindian Database of the Americas

http://pidba.utk.edu/main.htm.

Simon Fraser University, Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, "A Journey to a New Land" Website

http://www.sfu.museum/journey/sitemap.php.

 

Books

Adovasio, James

2003  The First Americans: In Pursuit of Archaeology's Greatest Mystery.  Modern Library, New York.

Bonnichsen, Robson, Bradley T. Lepper, Dennis Stanford, and Michael R. Waters, editors

2006  Paleoamerican origins: beyond Clovis.  Center for the Study of the First Americans, Texas A&M University Press, College Station, Texas.

Dillehay, Thomas D.

2000  The settlement of the Americas: a new prehistory.  Basic Books, New York.

Dixon, E. J.

1999  Bone's, boats, and bison.  University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.

Lepper, Bradley T. and Robson Bonnichsen, editors

2004  New perspectives on the First Americans.  Center for the Study of the First Americans, Texas A&M University Press, College Station, Texas.

Meltzer, David

2009  First Peoples in a New World: colonizing Ice Age America.  University of California Press, Berkeley.

Powell, Joseph F.

2005  The First Americans: race, evolution, and the origin of Native Americans.  Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Storck, Peter L.

2006  Journey to the Ice Age: Discovering an Ancient World.  UBC Press, Vancouver, British Columbia.

Ubelaker, Douglas, editor

2006  Handbook of North American Indians, Volume 3: Environment, Origins, and Population.  Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C.

Wyatt, Valerie

2008  Who Discovered America? Kids Can Press, Toronto.  Learning Resource Material at http://www.kidscanpress.com/assets/w_WhoDiscoveredAmerica_1945/PDFs/WhoDiscoveredAmerica_1945_teaching.pdf; site last viewed on 15 January 2008.

 

Articles

Adovasio, J. M. & David Pedler

2005  The peopling of North America.  In North American Archaeology, edited by Timothy R. Pauketat and Diana DiPaolo Loren, pp. 30-55.  Blackwell, Malden, Massachusetts.

Brace, C. Loring

2002  Background for the peopling of the New World: Old World roots for New World branches.  Athena Review 3(2):53-61, 103-104.

Brumble, H. David

1998  Vine Deloria Jr, creationism, and ethnic pseudoscience.  Reports of the National Center for Science Education 18:10-14.  Available online at http://ncseweb.org/rncse/18/6/vine-deloria-jr-creationism-ethnic-pseudoscience; site last viewed, 14 January 2008.

Colavito, Jason

2006  Who really discovered America?  Skeptic 12(3):50-55.

Dillehay, Tom D.

2009  Probing deeper into first American studies.  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 106(4):971-978.

Dixon, E. James

2001  Human colonization of the Americas: timing, technology, and process.  Quaternary Science Reviews 20:277-299.

2002  How and when did people first come to North America?  Athena Review 3(2):23-27, 99. Available online at: http://www.athenapub.com/10Dixon.htm; site last viewed, 9 February 2009.

Goebel, Ted, Michael R. Waters, and Dennis H. O'Rourke

2008  The late Pleistocene dispersal of modern humans in the Americas.  Science 319:1497-1502.

Malakoff, David

2008  Rethinking the Clovis.  American Archaeology 12(4):26-31.

Schurr, Theodore G.

2002  A molecular anthropological perspective on the peopling of the Americas.  Athena Review 3(2):62-75, 104-108.

 

 

 

 The following is a notification from Cahokia Mounds Staff regarding the recent theft of a copper celt that was on display at the Museum. The missing celt is shown below.

 

 

 We recently discovered that a copper celt (axe) had been stolen from one of our exhibit cases. The thieves apparently were able to compromise the security of the case at the "Fiber" display. It was solid copper, 5 3/4 inches long, 2 1/2  inches wide, and 7/8 inch thick. One side had fabric impressions on the surface caused by the copper oxidizing and incorporating the pattern of the cloth or bag in which it originally had been wrapped. There was a catalog number on it, 19x862. Please keep an eye out for this axe and if you see it or something similar for sale, please contact us. This comes at a time when we are understaffed due to budget cuts, but we are taking special steps to make sure all the cases are more secure. Other than some minor vandalism, this is the first artifact theft at the Interpretive Center in the 20 years since it opened.

William R. Iseminger
Asst. Site Manager/Public Relations
Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site
30 Ramey Street
Collinsville, IL 62234
Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
Web: www.cahokiamounds.com"