Testing of Kennewick Bones Still Under Dispute

Y A K I M A, Wash., Oct. 15 -- The U.S. Department of the Interior is expected to announce that it will accelerate efforts to determine whether the collection of bones known as Kennewick Man can be linked to any existing Indian tribes.

That announcement was planned today.

Initially, the Interior Department had planned to wait for results of radiocarbon testing on the bones, believed to be more than 9,000 years old, before proceeding with “cultural affiliation” studies, which were expected to take two or three years and ultimately could determine who gets custody of Kennewick Man.

But in an effort to comply with a recent court order by U.S. Magistrate Judge John Jelderks in Portland, Ore., the agency is now planning to begin the studies before Kennewick Man’s age is determined for certain and complete them by next spring.

Kennewick Man, a collection of 350 bones, is one of the oldest and most complete skeletons found in North America. He is currently stored at the Burke Museum in Seattle.

Looking For Clues

The Interior Department also was preparing to post on its Web site new details on the findings so far about Kennewick Man. Chief archaeologist Francis McManamon has said the collection could provide important clues as to the manner in which North America was populated.

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An increasing number of scientists now believe that the Americas’ first immigrants may have come by boat more than 12,000 years ago, rather than crossing a land bridge across the Bering Sea.

Kennewick Man attracted international attention when one anthropologist noted that the features of the skull bore little resemblance to modern Indian tribes.

Study since then suggests that his skull is most similar to those populations from the South Pacific, Polynesia and the Ainu, an ancient tribe in northern Japan.

The disposition of the bones has been hotly contested by a group of Northwest Indian tribes, who claim him as an ancestor and want to bury the bones, and eight prominent anthropologists, who have sued for the right to study Kennewick Man.