I think the Kennewick Man repatriation was a loss for science

I remember when the first reconstructions of Kennewick Man came out in the late 1990s. The face looked nothing like modern Native Americans, more like a guy you'd see on the street in Europe. But over 20 years, the pressure from tribal groups to rebury him kept building until it happened in 2017. And now we can't study him anymore. I get that tribes have claims under NAGPRA, but in my experience, we lost a huge chance to learn about early migration patterns. The skull shape and the spear point lodged in his hip told a different story than what most people want to hear. Has anyone else felt like we rushed to bury evidence just to avoid conflict?

2 comments

2 Comments

olivia_hernandez2d ago

Oh man, that whole thing reminds me of when they found that old woolly mammoth tusk near my uncle's farm back in 2003 and the county wanted to dig it up but the local historical society shut it down because they thought it might disturb some old pioneer graves nobody even remembered were there. Did you ever see those early facial reconstructions of him?

kevin2181d ago

Gotta disagree there - those early facial reconstructions were mostly guesswork based on incomplete skulls, not exactly accurate science. They've come a long way since then with CT scanning and better tissue depth data, so those old ones kinda feel like caveman drawings compared to what we can do now. Would you trust a reconstruction from 20 years ago over one made with modern tech?