Army Corps Re-Houses Prehistoric Skeleton Found in Kennewick, Wash. Story-Date: 09:38 a.m. PST Sunday , November 30, 1997 ------------------------------------------------------------ Army Corps Re-Houses Prehistoric Skeleton Found in Kennewick, Wash. By Lucy Laird, Indian Country Today, Rapid City, S.D. Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News WALLA WALLA, Wash.--Dec. 1--The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced recently that they had re-housed the 9,300-year-old remains of a man unearthed near the Columbia River in Kennewick, Wash., in the summer of 1996. During the transfer process, the corps also discovered an extra bone they believe belongs to another individual. Alternately referred to as the Ancient One, Kennewick Man, and the Ultimate Ancestor by the various groups laying claim to it, the prehistoric skeleton is believed to be the oldest and most complete found in the Pacific Northwest. Originally stored in a curation facility at the Pacific Northwest National Labs at Battelle, the bones remain there in a qualified short-term storage facility that handles archeological material on a regular basis. After an examination by a conservator and a corps expert on housing archeological material, the previous storage conditions were deemed good and secure. Despite this, the corps transferred the remains to even better conditions in improved facilities. The handling was performed with no direct contact, either physical or spiritual, said Dutch Meyer, Chief of Public Affairs for the Walla Walla District of the Army Corps of Engineers. "We were trying to be eminently considerate of interests at both ends of the scale," said Mr. Meyer, referring to both tribal members and scientists. He added that no scientific examination of any kind was performed on the skeleton, though the corps did produce new cataloguing records. During a review of the existing bone components, experts found that "what appears to be one of the skeletal items among materials present could be from another individual," said Mr. Meyer. He further explained that among the 208 unique bones that make up the human skeletal system, this extra bone appeared to be a double of one already accounted for, although he did not specify which. The corps is holding the remains, protected by multiple layers of security and continued access restrictions, pending a court ruling that would determine to whom they should be awarded. Among those awaiting this decision are eight prominent scientists who filed a suit challenging the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) of the year 1990. They contend that the skeleton cannot be linked conclusively to modern American Indians without more study. Also hoping to obtain the skeleton are five tribes of the Northwest who were historically located in the Columbia River basin, foremost among them the Umatilla tribe. They intend the bones for reburial under the 1990 law. In related news, U.S. Rep. Doc Hastings, who represents the area in Eastern Washington where the skeletal remains were found, proposed an amendment to NAGPRA on November 13 in Washington D.C. The bill that Republican Rep. Hastings filed would allow scientists greater leeway in the study of such ancient human remains in order to determine important cultural and historical information. He called the current law "vague and confusing" and said that he was not surprised that it was so difficult for the scientists and the tribes to reconcile their differences. Other provisions of the proposal would: -- promote "sound science" as the foremost consideration in determining ownership of human remains and cultural items, -- stop study when cultural concerns come before those of research, -- prevent study of remains from federal land with identifiable descendants, and -- address the inherent confusion when multiple tribes, who may have inhabited the same lands over time, claim custody. ----- Visit Indian Country Today on the World Wide Web at http://www.indiancountry.com/ ----- (c) 1997, Indian Country Today, Rapid City, S.D. Distributed by Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News. ------------------------------------------------------------