In 2004 a federal court ruled that a law giving Native American tribes control over their ancestors' remains does not apply to Kennewick Man - one of the oldest skeletons ever found in North America - because no present-day tribe can prove kinship. As a result, anthropologists were free to study it despite objections from tribes that claim a link through their oral history to the skeleton they call the Ancient One.
The problem with "Kennewick Man" has always been twofold:
1- Supposedly, he looks like Captain picard.
Seriously...
The facial reconstruction that was made of his skull appears to have "Caucasian" features and looks much like P. Stewart.
Personally; I think it's wishful thinking, combined with missing hair and tan.
Certain scientists and politicians have seized upon his possible European origins; hoping to claim an earlier "European arrival" in North America.
Recent finds in Eastern North America have hinted at a possible Solutrean (ancient France)-influenced stone tool assemblage; Clovis points are similar.
2- NAGPRA (Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act) requires today's tribes to 'prove' tribal affiliation with artifacts or ancestral remains in museums, university labs or gov't storage in order to get them back for reburial (bodies and grave goods), ceremonial use (ceremonial items) or tribal collections.
While it may seem "illogical" that a body so old could possibly have "proveable tribal affiliation" with any modern tribe; undoubtedly, he is a Native American ancestor, regardless of where he came from;
NOT a republican ancestor,
NOT a son of the revolution,
NOR a Kentucky colonel.
This is not to diminish prehistoric European contact, but to declare that...
it does not diminish an increasingly deep Native American presence in the Americas.
In fact; any Gauls, Cromagnons or Chinese sailors that got lost and ended up on Turtle Island probably made it into the gene pool;
if they weren't terminated, shortly after arrival.
Previous post regarding KW.
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