In July 1996, skeletal remains of a prehistoric Paleoamerican man were discovered along the Columbia River near Kennewick, Washington. The Kennewick man, as the remains have been called, is now one of the most complete ancient skeletons ever discovered in the Americas.
Radiocarbon dating revealed that the skeleton is 9,000 years old but much about the remains such as the man's ancestry have been a subject of debate, which led to scientific and political controversies.
Kennewick man initially fell into the hands of the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) because the remains were found in federal land. Five tribes, however, claimed that the ancient man was their ancestor and wanted the remains to be returned to them to be buried under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA). Once the skeleton is buried, it could no longer be used for scientific study.
Earlier analysis,however, suggested that the ancient man's bones are anatomically different when compared with those of modern Native Americans and thus NAGPRA may not apply sparking a long legal conflict between scientists who want to study the skeleton, the corps and the tribes.
A 2004 court ruling was eventually in favor of the scientists but a new DNA analysis of the Kennewick man could again stir the debate over who should be its caretakers.
Results of the genome analysis, which was published in journal Nature on June 18, provided evidence that the Kennewick Man is more closely related to modern Native Americans compared with any other modern human populations
"Among the Native American groups for whom genome-wide data are available for comparison, several seem to be descended from a population closely related to that of Kennewick Man," the researchers reported. "We therefore conclude based on genetic comparisons that Kennewick Man shows continuity with Native North Americans over at least the last eight millennia."
The researchers, however, were unable to link the remains to a particular contemporary Native American group because most Native Americans have not yet been sequenced.
"We will never be able to say what population, what individual in the Americas, is most closely related to [Kennewick Man] simply because most Native Americans haven't been sequenced," said study author geneticist Eske Willerslev, from the University of Copenhagen. "What we can say is that Kennewick Man is more closely related to some Native American groups than others."
Photo: Robert Montgomery | Flickr
