The Kennewick Man Finally Freed to Share His Secrets (opens in new tab)

The politics are complicated; I have several friends who are working archaeologists in the western US and it is a frequent topic of conversation. Since Kennewick Man, there have been a few other extremely old archaeological sites discovered in the same region of North America that support the hypothesis that a different people occupied these parts of North America at one time. The politics are approximately as follows:

The tribes are given enormous legal latitude and power on the basis that they are residing on their ancestral lands since the beginning of time. This is a working legal assumption absent evidence to the contrary. The Corps of Engineers, Department of Interior, et al need to operate with the consent of the tribes for many parts of their job.

The tribes sometimes use this relationship as leverage to gain a variety of concessions out of the government. The Corps of Engineers needs a good working relationship with the tribes as a practical matter or it makes their job very difficult.

Herein lies the conflict: any scientific evidence that the tribes are not in their ancestral lands undermines their political leverage and so they actively attempt to suppress scientific inquiries that may undermine them. The Corps of Engineers and other government organizations that need the permission of tribes to operate are strongly encouraged by the tribes to maintain the status quo or the tribes will make life difficult for them. It is a clear conflict of interest.

In summary, the tribes have a political and financial incentive to suppress any evidence that they were not the first occupants of their land, and they have the leverage in some parts of government to use the government as their agents to enforce that perspective. Consequently, and unfortunately, a lot of archaeological evidence is quietly destroyed or unreported in that part of the country to avoid being held hostage by the tribes.

The Corps of Engineers was attempting to obey US Law which presumes that any pre-Columbian remains belong to the local tribes who have complete say over what happens to the remains. The local tribes claim the skeleton is their ancestor, and want it buried instead of defiled.

I'm ambivalent. This is very important science, but it comes at a cost of stomping on Native American rights.

In theory, the Indian nations retain a residual sovereignty within the U.S. as a result of massive abuse, various legislation has been passed to protect their burial grounds, artifacts, hunting, fishing, and water rights. As resources dry up in the Western U.S., there is increasing pressure to renegotiate resource rights. The Indians view our archeological expeditions as basically desecration of their history and religion. They take a pretty hard line stance against such activities. The Department of Interior is involved in its oversight authority over the Indian nations, and the Army Corps of engineers is involved by virtue of its construction of the damns and irrigation systems that make life out west possible (but also make possible the American settlements that put pressure on Indian resources). Those departments have enough to deal with without siding with some archeologists against the Indian tribes.

> It was only later that the Bering land bridge migration occurred

This is interesting. Kennewick man's bones were radiocarbon dated to 8900 years before present, or around 6900 BCE.

I have never heard before that the "Bering land bridge migration" occurred after 6900BCE. That is much more recent than most estimates.

Also possible that whatever displaced the Kennewick man also displaced people who ended up in Japan :)