The Kennewick Man Story

Abstract

On the heels of stories about grave-robbing, we turn to the story of a 9000-year-old skeleton that was discovered in the Pacific Northwest’s Columbia River in 1996: Kennewick Man. The unearthing of the ancient remains exposes the bedrock beneath social discourse surrounding the discovery, where notions about the meanings of race, Indigeneity, justice and knowledge are forged. Although a federal law in the United States protects Native remains and relics, a group of scientists who wanted to examine the bones—rather than have them returned to tribes as required by law—won a lawsuit to enable them to examine Kennewick Man. The backstory is explained before we engage in the study of social discourse surrounding the skeleton.