View source for Kennewick Man

{{Short description|Ancient skeleton of Indigenous American man}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2025|cs1-dates=ly}}
{{Infobox fossil
| catalog number   =
| common name      = Kennewick Man
| image            = Kennewick Man.jpg
| caption          = Skull of Kennewick Man. Resin cast by James Chatters
| species          = ''[[Homo sapiens]]''
| age              = 8,400 to 8,690 years [[Before Present]]
| place discovered = [[Columbia Park (Kennewick, Washington)|Columbia Park]] in Kennewick, Washington
| date discovered  = July 28, 1996
| discovered by    = Will Thomas and David Deacy
}}

'''Kennewick Man''' or '''Ancient One'''{{refn|group=nb|His historical name is unknown. [[:wikt:moniker|Moniker]]s were invented as a means of identification. The name "Kennewick Man" follows the practice of naming a discovery after the place it was found. The Indian name name "Ancient One" began to be used as early as the year 2000.<ref>{{cite news |last=Murphy |first=Kim |author-link=Kim Murphy |title=U.S. rules skeleton belongs to Indians |newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]] |date=September 26, 2000 |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2000-sep-26-mn-26889-story.html |quote='It gives me a tremendous feeling knowing that this Ancient One has been reaffirmed as one of our ancestors [...],' said Armand Minthorn of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla [...] }}</ref>}} was a Native American man who lived during the early [[Holocene]] whose skeletal remains were found in 1996 washed out on a [[Stream bed|bank]] of the [[Columbia River]] near [[Kennewick, Washington]]. [[Radiocarbon dating|Radiocarbon tests]] show the man lived about 8,400 to 8,690 years [[Before Present]], making his skeleton one of the most complete ever found this old in the Americas,<ref name="Rasmussen"/> and thus of high scientific interest for understanding the [[peopling of the Americas]].{{sfnp|Preston|2014}}{{sfnp|Stafford|2014}}{{refn|group=nb|"Scientists have found only about 50 skeletons of such antiquity, most of them fragmentary. Any new find can thus add crucial insight into the ongoing mystery of who first colonized the New World."{{sfnp|Lemonick|Dorfman|2006}}}}

The discovery precipitated a nearly twenty-year-long dispute involving the Federal government, Native Americans, and the science community. The Federal government, through the [[United States Army Corps of Engineers]], held jurisdiction over the land where the remains were found and thus had legal custody. However, Native American tribes asserted legal rights to rebury the man under the [[Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act]] (NAGPRA), a federal law to repatriate Indian remains.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Gulliford |first1=Andrew |title=Bones of Contention: The Repatriation of Native American Human Remains |journal=[[The Public Historian]] |date=February 28, 2010 |volume=18 |number=4 |publisher=University of California Press |access-date=2023-12-24 |url=https://dokumen.tips/documents/gulliford-the-bones-of-contention.html |archive-date=2023-12-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231224040248/https://dokumen.tips/documents/gulliford-the-bones-of-contention.html |url-status=dead |quote=The Smithsonian Institution alone had 18,600 American Indian remains. Indians are further dehumanized by being exhibited alongside mastodons and dinosaurs and other extinct creatures. No other issue has touched a more sensitive chord than these disrespectful nineteenth-century collecting practices. }}</ref> Nevertheless, some members of the scientific community believed it was essential to conduct research on the skeleton, and asserted he was only distantly related to today's Native Americans and was more closely related to [[Polynesians|Polynesian]] or [[Ethnic groups of Southeast Asia|Southeast Asian]] peoples, which would exempt the case from NAGPRA.

The controversial case wound its way through courts for many years, including a period when scientists won access to study the remains. At the same time, technology for analyzing [[ancient DNA]] had been steadily improving; in June 2015, scientists at the [[University of Copenhagen]] published a study which found that Kennewick Man's genome is within a diverse group of contemporary Native Americans, though he is not associated with any specific modern tribe.<ref name="Rasmussen">{{cite journal |last1=Rasmussen |first1=Morten |last2=Sikora |first2=Martin |display-authors=et al. |date=June 18, 2015 |title=The Ancestry and Affiliations of Kennewick Man |journal=Nature |volume=523 |issue=7561 |pages=455–458 |bibcode=2015Natur.523..455R |doi=10.1038/nature14625 |pmc=4878456 |pmid=26087396 }}{{collapsible list | title = et al. list | hlist = on | expand = y<!--Accessibility issue-->es|Morten Rasmussen | titlestyle = color:gray;|Martin Sikora|Anders Albrechtsen|Thorfinn Sand Korneliussen|J. Víctor Moreno-Mayar|G. David Poznik|Christoph P. E. Zollikofer|Marcia Ponce de León|Morten E. Allentoft|Ida Moltke|Hákon Jónsson|Cristina Valdiosera|Ripan S. Malhi|Ludovic Orlando|[[Carlos D. Bustamante]]|Thomas W. Stafford, Jr.|[[David J. Meltzer]]|[[Rasmus Nielsen (biologist)|Rasmus Nielsen]]|Eske Willerslev1}}</ref> This finding, that he is of Native American background, gave decisive weight to the NAGPRA argument. In September 2016, the US House and Senate passed legislation to return the remains to a coalition of Columbia basin tribes. Kennewick Man was buried according to tribal traditions on February 18, 2017, with 200 members of five Columbia basin tribes in attendance, at an undisclosed location in the area.<ref name="The Spokesman-Review">{{cite news |date=February 20, 2017 |title=Tribes lay remains of Kennewick Man to rest |work=[[The Spokesman-Review]] |location=Spokane, Washington |access-date=2017-02-20 |url=http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2017/feb/20/tribes-lay-remains-of-kennewick-man-to-rest/ }}</ref> Within the scientific community since the 1990s, [[Peopling of the Americas#Physical anthropology|arguments for a non-Indian ancient history of the Americas]], including by ancient peoples from Europe, have been losing ground in the face of ancient DNA analysis.<ref name="Kakaliqouras" /> The identification of Kennewick Man as closely related to modern Native Americans symbolically marked the "end of a [supposed] non-Indian ancient North America".<ref name="Kakaliqouras" />

==Discovery==
Kennewick Man was discovered by accident by two college students, Will Thomas and David Deacy, on July 28, 1996. They were at the Columbia River to watch a [[Hydroplane (boat)|hydroplane]] race near Kennewick. Thomas was wading in about {{cvt|18|in|cm|-1|disp=flip}} of water, about {{cvt|10|ft|0|disp=flip}} from shore, when his foot struck something hard and round. He pulled up a human skull. They stashed it in the bushes, waited for the race to finish, then found a plastic bucket and took the skull to a Kennewick police officer. The police returned with the students to the location.{{sfnp|Stang|1996}} Further searching found more bones underwater and along the shore. The county coroner determined the skull was not modern, and it was given to archaeologist [[James Chatters]], who over the course of ten visits to the site, assembled 350 bones and bone fragments creating a nearly complete articulated skeleton.{{sfnp|Custred|2000}}

==Scientific analysis==
===Description===
The cranium was fully intact including all of its teeth from the time of death.{{sfnp|Chatters|2004}} All major bones were found except the [[Human sternum|sternum]] and a few in the hands and feet.{{sfnp|Chatters|2000}} After further study, Chatters concluded it was "a male of late middle age (40–55 years), and tall (170 to 176 cm, 5′7″ to 5′9″), and was fairly muscular with a slender build".{{sfnp|Chatters|2004}} The Owsley team in 2005 reported he may have been as young as 38 at the time of death.{{sfnp|Lemonick|Dorfman|2006}}

A small bone fragment submitted to the [[University of California, Riverside]] for [[radiocarbon dating]] estimated he lived between 9,300 and 9,600 years ago (8,400 [[Calibrated years|uncalibrated]] "radiocarbon years"), and not the 19th century, as had originally been thought.{{sfnp|Custred|2000}} Subsequent radiocarbon dating indicated a somewhat younger age of 8,900 to 9,000 years BP,{{sfnp|Stafford|2014}}{{sfnp|Preston|2014}} and later 8,400 to 8,690 calibrated years [[Before Present]].<ref name="Rasmussen" />

===Geography===
Measurements of carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen isotope ratios in the bone [[collagen]] indicate that the man lived almost exclusively on a diet of marine mammals for the last 20 or so years of his life, and that the water he drank was glacial melt.{{sfnp|Chatters |Chisholm |Knyf |Longstaffe |2014}} The closest marine coastal environment where this water could have been found during his lifetime was in Alaska. That, combined with the location of the find, led to the conclusion that the individual led a highly mobile, water-borne lifestyle centered on the northern coast.{{sfnp|Preston|2014}}{{sfnp|Brenner |Dixon |Edgar |Farmer |2014}}

===Injuries===
Chatters found a {{convert|79|mm|in|1|abbr=on}} stone projectile lodged in his [[Ilium (bone)|ilium]] (part of the pelvic bone). There was new bone growing around it indicating a painful but old wound.{{sfnp|Chatters|2000}} Chatters made a CT scan which determined the projectile was made from a siliceous gray stone with igneous (volcanic) origins.{{sfnp|Chatters|2000}} The projectile, leaf-shaped, long, and broad, with serrated edges, fit the description of a [[Cascade point]], characteristic of the [[Cascade phase]] from 12,000 to 7,500 years BP.{{sfnp|Chatters|2000}}

Forensic anthropologist Douglas Owsley, who later led the scientific team that examined Kennewick Man's skeleton in 2005, discovered that the bones in Kennewick Man's arms were bent. Owsley theorized that this was the result of powerful muscles built up over the course of a lifetime of hunting and spearfishing.{{sfnp|Chatters|2014}} Kennewick Man was found to be right-handed, as the bones of the right arm are noticeably larger than the left.

Owsley also found that Kennewick Man had arthritis in his right elbow, both of his knees, and several vertebrae but not severe enough to be crippling. Kennewick Man had suffered some trauma in his lifetime, which was evident by a fractured rib that had healed, a depression fracture on his forehead, and a similar indentation on the left side of the head, and a spear jab that healed.{{sfnp|Cook|2014}}

===Genetic and cultural origins===
Chatters, who initially investigated the skeleton, early on concluded that the "presence of [[Caucasian race|Caucasoid]] traits [and a] lack of definitive Native-American characteristics", as well as the apparent context of the skeleton as part of an early Paleo-American group led him to state that the body was "Caucasian" (an anthropological term not synonymous with "white" or "European").<ref>{{cite news |last=Zimmer |first=Carl |author-link=Carl Zimmer |title=New DNA results show Kennewick Man was Native American |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=June 18, 2015 |access-date=2023-12-20 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/19/science/new-dna-results-show-kennewick-man-was-native-american.html }}</ref>{{sfnp|Chatters|2001|p=[https://archive.org/details/ancientencounter0000chat/page/170?view=theater 170]|q=}}

Scientists attempted DNA analysis within a few years of discovery, but reported "available technology and protocols do not allow the analysis of [[ancient DNA]] from these remains" ie. multiple experts were unable to extract enough DNA for analysis.<ref>{{cite book |last=Kaestle |first=Federica A. |chapter=Ch. 2: Report on DNA Analysis of the Remains of "Kennewick Man" from Columbia Park, Washington |title=Report on the DNA Testing Results of the Kennewick Human Remains from Columbia Park, Kennewick, Washington |chapter-url=https://www.nps.gov/archeology/kennewick/kaestle.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070819231551/http://www.nps.gov/archeology/kennewick/kaestle.htm |archive-date=2007-08-19 |url-status=dead |date=September 2000 }}</ref>

Chatters ''et al.'' (2000) conducted a graphic comparison, including size, of Kennewick Man to eighteen modern populations. They found Kennewick Man to be most closely related to the [[Ainu people|Ainu]], a recognized indigenous people of Northern Japan. However, when size was excluded as a factor, no association to any population was established.{{sfnp|Custred|2000}} In 2001, Chatters wrote that the "craniofacial characteristics of Paleo-Americans, Asians, and early Europeans, loosely resemble the Ainu, Polynesian, and Australian peoples", but that no group was the major contributor to the Paleo-American gene pool.{{sfnp|Chatters|2001|p=[https://archive.org/details/ancientencounter0000chat/page/263?view=theater 263]|ps=: "The craniofacial characteristics of Paleo-Americans, Asians, and early Europeans, loosely resembling as they do the Ainu, Polynesian, and Australian peoples, show that neither major contributor to the Paleo-American gene pool had yet differentiated far from the ancestral, generalized Homo sapiens form."}} Anthropologist [[C. Loring Brace]] maintained in a 2006 interview that, by his analysis, Kennewick Man was "likely related" to the Ainu of Japan.<ref>{{cite news |last1=King |first1=Anna |title=Kennewick Man's bones provide window to past |publisher=TriCity Herald |date=July 23, 2006 |access-date=2015-04-25 |url=http://www.tri-cityherald.com/tch/local/story/7997434p-7890471c.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061210135223/http://www.tri-cityherald.com/tch/local/story/7997434p-7890471c.html |archive-date=2006-12-10 }}</ref>

Anthropologist Joseph Powell of the [[University of New Mexico]] was also allowed to examine the remains. Powell used craniometric data obtained by anthropologist [[William White Howells]] of [[Harvard University]] and anthropologist Tsunehiko Hanihara of [[Saga University]]; this had the advantage of including data drawn from Asian and North American populations.{{sfnp|Chatters|2001|p=[https://archive.org/details/ancientencounter0000chat/page/178?view=theater 178-179]|q=}} Powell said that Kennewick Man was not European but most resembled the [[Ainu people|Ainu]]{{sfnp|Custred|2000}} and [[Polynesians]].{{sfnp|Chatters|2001|p=[https://archive.org/details/ancientencounter0000chat/page/178?view=theater 178-179]|q=}} Powell said that the Ainu descend from the [[Jōmon]] people, an East Asian population with "closest biological affinity with south-east Asians rather than [[Peoples of the Caucasus|western Eurasian]] peoples".<ref name="Powell">{{cite book |last1=Powell |first1=Joseph F. |last2=Rose |first2=Jerome C. |chapter=Ch. 2: Report on the Osteological Assessment of the Kennewick Man Skeleton |title=Report on the Non-Destructive Examination, Description, and Analysis of the Human Remains from Columbia Park, Kennewick, Washington |publisher=Department of the Interior and National Park Service |date=October 1999 |chapter-url=http://www.nps.gov/archeology/kennewick/powell_rose.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070829022757if_/http://www.nps.gov/archeology/kennewick/powell_rose.htm |archive-date=2007-08-29 }}</ref> Powell said that dental analysis showed the skull to have a 94-percent consistency with being of a [[Sundadont]] group like the Ainu and Polynesians and only a 48-percent consistency with being of a [[Sinodont]] group like that of North Asia.{{sfnp|Chatters|2001|p=[https://archive.org/details/ancientencounter0000chat/page/182?view=theater 182]|q=}} Powell said analysis of the skull showed it to be "unlike American Indians and Europeans".{{sfnp|Chatters|2001|p=[https://archive.org/details/ancientencounter0000chat/page/182?view=theater 182]|q=}} Powell concluded that the remains were "clearly not a [[Caucasoid race|Caucasoid]] unless Ainu and Polynesians are considered Caucasoid".<ref name="Powell"/>

Later studies criticised claims made about the ancestry of the Kennewick Man purely based on skull morphology, noting that a single skull is too small a sample size to accurately determine affinities with any degree of certainty, and that the Kennewick Man's skull morphology falls within the variation of known Native American skulls.<ref name="Rasmussen" />

Advances in genetic research made it possible to analyze ancient DNA (aDNA) more accurately than earlier attempts when the skeleton was found. In June 2015, a study was published which analysed his sequenced [[nuclear genome]], which concluded that his genome was nested within the diversity of contemporary Native Americans. The study concluded Kennewick Man belonged to a population closely related to contemporary Native Americans in the Pacific Northwest, including [[Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation]]. Of the five tribes that originally claimed Kennewick Man as an ancestor, their members were the only ones to donate DNA samples for evaluation. The low sequencing depth (approximately 1x) of the Kennewick Man's genome, along lack of genomes from North American aboriginal populations have made it impossible to ascertain Kennewick Man's nearest living relatives among regional Native American tribes. His [[Human Y-chromosome DNA haplogroup|Y-DNA haplogroup]] is [[Haplogroup Q-M3|Q-M3]] and his [[Human mitochondrial DNA haplogroup|mitochondrial DNA]] is [[Haplogroup X (mtDNA)|X2a]], both uniparental genetic markers found almost exclusively in Native Americans.<ref name="Rasmussen" /><ref>{{cite news |last=Morelle |first=Rebecca |author-link=Rebecca Morelle |date=June 18, 2015 |title=DNA reignites Kennewick Man debate |work=[[BBC News]] |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-33170655 }}</ref>

===Burial===
Kennewick Man had been buried deliberately.{{sfnp|Lemonick|Dorfman|2006}} By examining the calcium carbonate left behind as underground water collected on the underside of the bones and then evaporated, scientists were able to conclude that Kennewick Man was lying on his back with his feet rolled slightly outward and his arms at his side, with the palms facing down, a position that could not have been accidental.{{sfnp|Owsley |Stafford |Williams |2014}}{{sfnp|Berryman |2014}}

==Scientific initiatives and significance==
===Scientific initiatives===
There have been three major scientific initiatives to study and report on Kennewick Man.<!-- Citation not required. Three paragraphs follow, with the three studies. Please do not make this into a "list" (* bullets) per [[WP:PROSE]] -->

Between 1998 and 2000, the Department of the Interior and National Park Service, in cooperation with the Corps of Engineers, the federal agency responsible for the Kennewick remains, conducted a series of scientific examinations of the remains. Eighteen nationally and internationally recognized scientists and scholars conducted a variety of historical and scientific examinations, analyses, tests, and studies.<ref>{{cite web |editor-last=McManamom |editor-first=F. P. |title=Kennewick Man |work=NPS Archaeology Program |date=May 2004 |url=http://www.nps.gov/archeology/kennewick/index.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070820092634if_/http://www.nps.gov/archeology/kennewick/index.htm |archive-date=2007-08-20 }}</ref> Nevertheless, the "analysis was quickly suspended by the U.S. government" because of the controversy over custodianship of the remains.{{sfnp|Chatters|2000}}

After the suspension of the government studies, anthropologists sued the government, and in 2002 won the right to study the bones. For the next six years beginning in 2005, Douglas Owsley of the Smithsonian Institution coordinated more than a dozen experts, who analyzed the bones in numerous ways including forensic anthropology, physical anthropology, and isotope chemistry. Their report was published in 2014, in the book titled ''Kennewick Man, The Scientific Investigation of an Ancient American Skeleton''.{{sfnp|Owsley |Jantz |2014}}

In 2015, a paper in ''Nature'' titled "The Ancestry and Affiliations of Kennewick Man" analyzed ancient DNA from Kennewick Man, and determined he is associated with modern day Indians.<ref name="Rasmussen" />

===Scientific significance===
According to ''Time'' magazine, "Scientists have found only about 50 skeletons of such antiquity, most of them fragmentary. Any new find can thus add crucial insight into the ongoing mystery of who first colonized the New World."{{sfnp|Lemonick|Dorfman|2006}}

Since the mid-1990s, a debate in the scientific community has centered on the identity of the [[Peopling of the Americas|first peoples of the Americas]], involving two competing concepts: "Palaeoindian" and "Palaeoamerican". The "Palaeoindian" model asserts that the earliest inhabitants are the ancestors of modern Native Americans, while the "Palaeoamerican" model posits that they were an unrelated group, possibly an extinct Asian lineage or even European migrants. Genetic analysis of Kennewick Man and other ancient skeletons has played a significant role in challenging the Palaeoamerican theories. The DNA findings from Kennewick Man have been described as marking an "end of a... non-Indian ancient North America."<ref name="Kakaliqouras">{{cite journal |last1=Kakaliqouras |first1=Ann M. |title=The Repatriation of the Palaeoamericans: Kennewick Man/the Ancient One and the End of a Non-Indian Ancient North America |journal=BJHS Themes |date=2019 |volume=4 |pages=79–98 |doi=10.1017/bjt.2019.9|doi-access=free }}</ref>

The discovery of Kennewick Man, along with other ancient skeletons, has furthered scientific debate over the origin and history of early Native American people.{{sfnp|Custred|2000}} One hypothesis holds that a single source of migration occurred, consisting of hunters and gatherers following large herds of game who wandered across the [[Bering land bridge]]. An alternative hypothesis is that more than one source population was involved in migration immediately following the [[Last Glacial Maximum]] (LGM), which occurred ~22k to ~18k years BP, and that the land migration through Beringia was either preceded by or roughly synchronous with a waterborne migration from coastal Asia.<ref>{{citation|url=http://natural-history.uoregon.edu/sites/default/files/mnch/Erlandson_and_Braje_2011.pdf|author1=Erlandson, J.|author2=Braje, T.|title=From Asia to the Americas by boat? Paleogeography, paleoecology, and stemmedpoints of the northwest Pacific|access-date=2015-04-23|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180919070842/http://natural-history.uoregon.edu/sites/default/files/mnch/Erlandson_and_Braje_2011.pdf|archive-date=2018-09-19|url-status=dead}}</ref>

The similarity of some ancient skeletal remains in the Americas, such as Kennewick Man, to coastal Asian phenotypes is suggestive of more than one migration source.{{how|date=December 2023}}{{sfnp|Preston|2014}}{{sfnp|Custred|2000}}<ref name="Powell"/>{{sfnp|Brace |Brace |Nelson |Qifeng |2014}} Classification of DNA from ancient skeletons such as Kennewick Man and others of similar phenotype may or may not reveal genetic affiliation between them, with either Beringian<ref>{{citation|vauthors=Tamm E, Kivisild T, Reidla M, Metspalu M, Smith DG |title=Beringian Standstill and Spread of Native American Founders|journal=PLOS ONE |volume=2 |issue=9 |pages=e829 |display-authors=etal|doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0000829 |pmid=17786201 |pmc=1952074 |year=2007 |bibcode=2007PLoSO...2..829T|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=Fagundes NJ, Kanitz R, Eckert R, et al. |title=Mitochondrial population genomics supports a single pre-Clovis origin with a coastal route for the peopling of the Americas|journal=Am. J. Hum. Genet.|volume=82|issue=3|pages=583–92|date=March 2008|pmid=18313026|pmc=2427228|doi= 10.1016/j.ajhg.2007.11.013}}</ref> or coastal Asian<ref>{{citation |author1=Adachi N. |author2=Shinoda K |author3=Umetsu K |author4=Matsumura H. |title=Mitochondrial DNA analysis of Jomon skeletons from the Funadomari site, Hokkaido, and its implication for the origins of Native American, Am J Phys Anthropol. 2010 Mar; 141(3):504–05 |journal=American Journal of Physical Anthropology |volume=138 |issue=3 |pages=255–65 |pmid=18951391 |year=2009 |doi=10.1002/ajpa.20923 |s2cid=21953365 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Kemp |first1=Brian M. |first2=Ripan S. |last2=Malhi |display-authors=et al. |title=Genetic Analysis of Early Holocene Skeletal Remains From Alaska and its Implications for the Settlement of the Americas |journal=American Journal of Physical Anthropology |volume=132 |number=4 |pages=605–621 |year=2007 |doi=10.1002/ajpa.20543 |pmid=17243155 |url=http://pages.ucsd.edu/~rfrank/class_web/UnivHouse/Kemp%20et%20al.%202007.pdf  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150418045340/http://pages.ucsd.edu/~rfrank/class_web/UnivHouse/Kemp%20et%20al.%202007.pdf |archive-date=2015-04-18 |url-status=live }}{{collapsible list |title=et al. list |titlestyle=color:gray; |expand=y<!--Accessibility issue-->es |hlist=on |Deborah A. Bolnick |E. James Dixon |Jason A. Eshleman
|Terence E. Fifield |[[Timothy H. Heaton]] |John R. Johnson |Brian M. Kemp |Joseph G. Lorenz |Ripan S. Malhi |Cristina Martinez-Labarga |John McDonough |Olga Rickards |David Glenn Smith |[[Rosita Worl]] }}</ref> source populations.

Regardless of the debate over whether there were more than one source of migration following the LGM, Kennewick Man has yielded insight into the marine lifestyle and mobility of early coastal migrants.{{sfnp|Brenner|Dixon|Edgar|Farmer|2014}}

===Owsley study criticisms===
In 2012, [[Burke Museum]] archeologists voiced concern and criticism of the Owsley team's preliminary findings (not published fully until 2014). First, it was noted that no one outside of Owsley's team had an opportunity to examine the Smithsonian's data to see how the team reached its conclusions.{{sfnp|Stang|2012}} Second, the absence of [[peer-review]]ed articles published prior to Owsley unveiling the bones' "secrets" was criticized.{{sfnp|Stang|2012}} Third, Owsley's non-Native argument hinged on the assumption that Kennewick Man's skull was a reliable means of assessing ancestry. This was a "nineteenth-century skull science paradigm", said [[David Hurst Thomas]], a curator at the [[American Museum of Natural History]].<ref>{{cite web |last=Greshko |first=Michael |title=Modern Native Americans Related To Kennewick Man |work=science20.com |date=June 20, 2015 |url=http://www.science20.com/michael_greshko/modern_native_americans_related_to_kennewick_man-156234 }}</ref> Skulls are no longer used as the basis for classifying remains,{{citation needed|reason=Is it true?|date=December 2023}} as DNA evidence is more reliable.

===Racial issues===
In 2005, author [[Jack Hitt]] wrote an essay "Mighty White of You: Racial Preferences Color America's Oldest Skulls and Bones", in which he describes a systemic "racial preference" for Kennewick Man, and other old skeletons, to be of European origin. If this theory held true (and DNA evidence shows it does not), it would turn the tables on Indian claims of being the first inhabitants, white Europeans would be the victims of Indian invaders, and politically modern Indians would have less claim to sovereignty.{{sfnp|Hitt|2010}}

The use of the word "Caucasoid" to describe Kennewick Man, and his facial reconstruction that appeared plausibly European, were taken by many to mean that Kennewick Man was "Caucasian", European, or "white", rather than an ancestor of present-day Native Americans,{{sfnp|Chatters|2001|p=[https://archive.org/details/ancientencounter0000chat/page/170?view=theater 170]|q=}} although the term "Caucasoid" had also been applied to the [[Ainu people|Ainu]] of northern Japan. In 1998, ''[[The New York Times]]'' reported "White supremacist groups are among those who used Kennewick Man to claim that Caucasians came to America well before Native Americans."<ref name="Egan" /> Additionally, [[Asatru Folk Assembly]], a racialist [[Modern Paganism|neopagan]] organization, sued to have the bones genetically tested before it was adjudicated that Kennewick Man was an ancestor of present-day Native Americans.<ref name="Egan">{{cite news |last=Egan |first=Timothy |author-link=Timothy Egan |title=Old Skull Gets White Looks, Stirring Dispute |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=April 2, 1998 |access-date=2023-12-20 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1998/04/02/us/old-skull-gets-white-looks-stirring-dispute.html }}</ref>

==Custody of Kennewick Man==
In October 1998, the remains were deposited at the [[Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture|Burke Museum]] at the [[University of Washington]]. The Burke Museum was the court-appointed neutral repository for the remains, and did not exhibit them. They were then still legally the property of the US Army Corps of Engineers, as they were found on land under its custody.<ref>{{cite web |title=Kennewick Man |publisher=Burke Museum |access-date=2012-10-12 |url=http://www.washington.edu/burkemuseum/kman/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110403085637/http://www.washington.edu/burkemuseum/kman/ |archive-date=2011-04-03 }}</ref>

According to NAGPRA, if human remains are found on federal lands and their cultural affiliation to a [[Native Americans in the United States|Native American]] tribe can be established, the affiliated tribe may claim them. Two months after discovery in 1996, the [[Umatilla people|Umatilla]] tribe requested custody of the remains so they could be reburied according to tribal tradition. It was contested by researchers who believed Kennewick Man was not affiliated with modern Indians.<ref>{{cite web |last=Minthorn |first=Armand |title=Human Remains Should Be Reburied |date=September 1996 |publisher=Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation |access-date=2014-07-28 |url=http://ctuir.org/kman1.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140812090048/http://ctuir.org/kman1.html |archive-date=2014-08-12 }}</ref> The Umatilla argued that their [[oral history]] goes back 10,000 years, and they had been present on the territory since the dawn of time.<ref>{{cite book |last=Thomas |first=David Hurst |author-link=David Hurst Thomas |title=Skull Wars: Kennewick Man, Archaeology, and the Battle for Native American Identity |year=2001 |publisher=Basic Books |isbn=978-0465092253 |page=[https://archive.org/details/skullwarskennewi00thom/page/n23/mode/2up?view=theater Preface: xxii] |quote=Our oral history goes back 10,000 years. We know how time began and how Indian people were created. They can say whatever they want, the scientists. They are being disrespectful. }}</ref> Native American tribes asserted that the claims that Kennewick Man was of non-Indian origin was an attempt to evade the law governing custodianship of ancient bones. The Corps of Engineers and the Clinton administration supported the Native American claim in what became a long-running lawsuit.{{sfnp|Hitt|2010|p=[https://archive.org/details/bestofbestameric0000unse_h1m8/page/256/mode/2up?q=%22corps%22&view=theater 256-257]}}

[[Robson Bonnichsen]] and seven other anthropologists sued the United States for the right to conduct research. The anthropologists won the case in 2002, and on February 4, 2004, the [[United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit]] panel rejected an appeal brought by the [[United States Army Corps of Engineers]] and the Umatilla, [[Colville tribe|Colville]], [[Yakama]], [[Nez Perce tribe|Nez Perce]], and other tribes on the grounds that they were unable to show sufficient evidence of [[kinship]].{{sfnp|Phillips|2005}}<ref>{{Citation |title=Bonnichsen, et al., v. United States, et al |url=http://www.saa.org/Portals/0/SAA/repatriation/Gould.2004-02-04.pdf |publisher=[[United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit|United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals)]] |id=no. 02-35994 |date=February 4, 2004 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100621074338/http://www.saa.org/Portals/0/SAA/repatriation/Gould.2004-02-04.pdf |archive-date=2010-06-21 }}</ref> Furthermore, the presiding judge found that the US government had acted in [[Bad faith#In law|bad faith]] and awarded attorney's fees of $2,379,000 to the plaintiffs.{{sfnp|Preston|2014}}

On April 7, 2005, during the 109th Congress, [[United States Senator|United States senator]] [[John McCain]] introduced an amendment to NAGPRA, which (section 108) would have changed the definition of "Native American" from being that which "is indigenous to the United States" to "is or was indigenous to the United States".<ref>{{cite web |title=S. 536, 109th Cong., Native American Omnibus Act of 2005 (reported in Senate) |publisher=[[Library of Congress]], US |year=2005 |access-date=2008-02-26 |archive-date=2015-11-22 |url=http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d109:SN00536:@@@L&summ2=m& |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151122121341/http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d109:SN00536:@@@L&summ2=m& |url-status=dead}}</ref> However, the 109th Congress concluded without enacting the bill. By the bill's definition, Kennewick Man would have been classified as Native American regardless of whether any link to a contemporary tribe could be found.

===Reburial===
In September 2016, in light of new DNA evidence associating Kennewick Man with modern day Native Americans, the [[114th United States Congress|114th US House and Senate]] passed legislation to return the ancient bones to a coalition of Columbia Basin tribes. The coalition included the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the [[Yakama]] Nation, the [[Nez Perce|Nez Perce Tribe]], the Confederated Tribes of the [[Umatilla Indian Reservation|Umatilla Reservation]], and the [[Wanapum]] Band of Priest Rapids.<ref>{{cite web |last=Connelly |first=Joel |title=Bones of 'Kennewick Man' returning home for burial |work=[[Seattle Post-Intelligencer]] |date=September 28, 2016 |access-date=2023-12-20 |url=http://www.seattlepi.com/local/politics/article/Bones-of-Kennewick-Man-the-Ancient-One-9395924.php }}</ref>

The remains of Kennewick Man were cataloged and removed from the Burke Museum on February 17, 2017. The following day, more than 200 members of five Columbia Plateau tribes were present at a burial of the remains, according to their traditions, at an undisclosed location.<ref name="The Spokesman-Review"/><ref>{{cite web |first=Kristi |last=Paulus |title=Kennewick Man finally buried by local tribes |website=keprtv.com |date=February 20, 2017 |access-date=2018-03-29 |url=http://keprtv.com/news/local/kennewick-man-finally-buried-by-local-tribes }}</ref>

==See also==
{{Portal|Indigenous peoples of the Americas|History|Science|United States}}

{{div col|colwidth=22em}}
* [[Archaeology of the Americas]]
* Archeological sites
** [[Calico Early Man Site]]
** [[Fort Rock Cave]]
** [[Marmes Rockshelter]]
** [[Mummy Cave]]
** [[Paisley Caves]]
* [[Cueva de las Manos]]  – {{small|(Cave paintings)}}
* [[Genetic history of indigenous peoples of the Americas]]
* Human remains
** [[Anzick-1]]
** [[Arlington Springs Man]]
** [[Buhl Woman]]
** [[Kwäday Dän Ts'ìnchi]]
** [[Leanderthal Lady]]
** [[Luzia Woman]]
** [[Naia (skeleton)|Naia]]
** [[Windover Archaeological Site]]
* [[List of unsolved deaths]]
* [[Repatriation and reburial of human remains]]
* [[Prehistoric migration and settlement of the Americas from Asia|Settlement of the Americas]]
{{div col end}}

===Notes===
{{reflist|group=nb}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Sources==
* {{cite book |last=Berryman |first=Hugh |author-link=Hugh Berryman |chapter=Postmortem breakage as a taphonomic tool for determining burial position |title=Kennewick Man, The Scientific Investigation of an Ancient American Skeleton |editor1-first=Douglas W. |editor1-last=Owsley |editor2-first=Richard L. |editor2-last=Jantz | location=College Station |publisher=Texas A&M University Press |year=2014 |isbn=978-1623492007 }}
* {{cite book |last1=Brace |first1=C. Loring |author-link=C. Loring Brace |last2=Brace |first2=Mary L. |last3=Nelson |first3=A. Russel |last4=Qifeng |first4=Pan |last5=Sequchi |first5=Noriko |last6=Umeda |first6=Hideyuki |last7=Wilson |first7=Margaret |chapter=The Ainu and Jōmon connection |title=Kennewick Man, The Scientific Investigation of an Ancient American Skeleton |editor1-first=Douglas W. |editor1-last=Owsley |editor2-first=Richard L. |editor2-last=Jantz | location=College Station |publisher=Texas A&M University Press |year=2014 |isbn=978-1623492007 }}
* {{cite book |last1=Brenner |first1=Joan Coltrain |last2=Dixon |first2=E. James |last3=Edgar |first3=J. H. Heather |last4=Farmer |first4=G. Lang |last5=Fifield |first5=Terence E. |last6=Heaton |first6=Timothy H. |last7=Kemp |first7=Brian M. |last8=Lee |first8=Craig M. |last9=Owsley |first9=Douglas W. |last10=Parrish |first10=Eric |last11=Smith |first11=David G. |last12=Turner |first12=Christy |last13=Worl |first13=Rosita K. |chapter=Evidence of maritime adaptation and coastal migration from southeast Alaska |title=Kennewick Man, The Scientific Investigation of an Ancient American Skeleton |editor1-first=Douglas W. |editor1-last=Owsley |editor2-first=Richard L. |editor2-last=Jantz | location=College Station |publisher=Texas A&M University Press |year=2014 |isbn=978-1623492007}}
* {{cite journal |last=Chatters |first=James C. |author-link=James Chatters |year=2000 |title=The Recovery and First Analysis of an Early Holocene Human |journal=[[American Antiquity]] |volume=65 |issue=2 |pages=291–316 |doi=10.2307/2694060 |pmid=17216899 |jstor=2694060 |s2cid = 6601530  }}
* {{cite book |last=Chatters |first=James C. |author-link=James Chatters |title=Ancient Encounters: Kennewick Man and the First Americans |publisher=Simon & Schuster |location=New York |year=2001 |isbn=068485936X |url=https://archive.org/details/ancientencounter0000chat}}
* {{cite web |last=Chatters |first=James C. |author-link=James Chatters |title=Kennewick Man |publisher=[[Smithsonian Institution]], US |website=Arctic Studies Center at the [[National Museum of Natural History]] |quote=''Originally published in the "Newsletter of the American Anthropological Association"'' |year=2004 |access-date=2013-02-05 |url=http://www.mnh.si.edu/arctic/html/kennewick_man.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120616063221/http://www.mnh.si.edu/arctic/html/kennewick_man.html |archive-date=2012-06-16   }}
* {{cite book |last=Chatters |first=James C. |author-link=James Chatters |chapter=Occupational stress markings and patterns of injury |title=Kennewick Man, The Scientific Investigation of an Ancient American Skeleton |editor1-first=Douglas W. |editor1-last=Owsley |editor2-first=Richard L. |editor2-last=Jantz | location=College Station |publisher=Texas A&M University Press |year=2014 |isbn=978-1623492007}}
* {{cite book |last1=Chatters|first1=James C.|author-link1=James Chatters|last2=Chisholm|first2=Brian|last3=Knyf|first3=Martin|last4=Longstaffe|first4=Fred J.|last5=Owsley|first5=Douglas W.|last6=Schwarcz|first6=Henry P.|last7=Stafford|first7=Thomas W.|chapter=Stable isotope evidence for diet and origin |title=Kennewick Man, The Scientific Investigation of an Ancient American Skeleton |editor1-first=Douglas W. |editor1-last=Owsley |editor2-first=Richard L. |editor2-last=Jantz | location=College Station |publisher=Texas A&M University Press |year=2014 |isbn=978-1623492007}}
* {{cite book |last=Cook |first=Della Collins |chapter=The natural shocks that flesh is heir to |title=Kennewick Man, The Scientific Investigation of an Ancient American Skeleton |editor1-first=Douglas W. |editor1-last=Owsley |editor2-first=Richard L. |editor2-last=Jantz | location=College Station |publisher=Texas A&M University Press |year=2014 |isbn=978-1623492007}}
* {{cite journal |last=Custred |first=Glynn |title=The Forbidden Discovery of Kennewick Man |journal=Academic Questions |volume=13 |issue=3 |year=2000 |pages=12–30 |doi=10.1007/s12129-000-1034-8 |doi-broken-date=July 12, 2025 |s2cid=143256888 |url-access=subscription |url=https://www.proquest.com/openview/6da8586e11b0ee6a8c1493cd4dccbfa6/1  }}
* {{cite book |last=Hitt |first=Jack |author-link=Jack Hitt |title=The Best Of The Best American Science Writing |chapter=Mighty White of You |publisher=Ecco |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-06-187500-7 |orig-year=2005 |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/bestofbestameric0000unse_h1m8/page/242/mode/2up }}. Reprinted from ''Harper's Magazine'', July 2005.
* {{cite magazine |last1=Lemonick |first1=Michael D. |author-link=Michael Lemonick |last2=Dorfman |first2=Andrew |title=Who Were the First Americans? |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]]  |date=March 13, 2006 |access-date=2023-12-27 |url=https://content.time.com/time/classroom/glenfall2006/pdfs/who_were_the_first_americans.pdf }}
* {{cite book |last1=Owsley |first1=Douglas L. |first2=Thomas W. |last2=Stafford  |first3=Aleitha A. |last3=Williams |chapter=Taphonomic indicators of burial context |title=Kennewick Man, The Scientific Investigation of an Ancient American Skeleton |editor1-first=Douglas W. |editor1-last=Owsley |editor2-first=Richard L. |editor2-last=Jantz | location=College Station |publisher=Texas A&M University Press |year=2014 |isbn=978-1623492007}}
* {{Cite news |last=Phillips |first=Melissa Lee |title=Scientists finally study Kennewick Man |newspaper=[[BBC News Online|BBC News]] |date=July 6, 2005 |access-date=2013-02-06 |url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4651831.stm }}
* {{cite book |title=Kennewick Man, The Scientific Investigation of an Ancient American Skeleton |editor1-first=Douglas W. |editor1-last=Owsley |editor2-first=Richard L. |editor2-last=Jantz | location=College Station |publisher=Texas A&M University Press |year=2014 |isbn=978-1623492007}}
* {{cite magazine |last=Preston |first=Douglas |author-link=Douglas Preston |title=The Kennewick Man Finally Freed to Share His Secrets |date=September 2014 |magazine=[[Smithsonian (magazine)|Smithsonian]] |access-date=2023-12-20 |url=http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/kennewick-man-finally-freed-share-his-secrets-180952462 }}
* {{cite news |last=Stang |first=John |title=Skull found on shore of Columbia |newspaper=[[Tri-City Herald]] |date=July 29, 1996 |access-date=2018-02-28 |url=http://www.kennewick-man.com/kman/news/story/2888895p-2924726c.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20031023044701/http://www.kennewick-man.com/kman/news/story/2888895p-2924726c.html |archive-date=2003-10-23 |url-status=dead  }}
* {{cite web |last=Stang |first=John |title=Burke archaeologist challenges Smithsonian over Kennewick Man |work=[[Crosscut.com]] |date=November 2, 2012 |url=http://crosscut.com/2012/11/kennewick-man-critique/  }}
* {{cite book |last=Stafford |first=Thomas W. |chapter=Chronology of the Kennewick Man skeleton |title=Kennewick Man, The Scientific Investigation of an Ancient American Skeleton |editor1-first=Douglas W. |editor1-last=Owsley |editor2-first=Richard L. |editor2-last=Jantz |location=College Station |publisher=Texas A&M University Press |year=2014 |isbn=978-1623492007}}

==Bibliography==
{{Scholia|topic}}
{{Refbegin}}
* [https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/transcripts/2705first.html "Mystery of the First Americans"] transcript of ''[[Nova (American TV series)|NOVA]]'' program. Air date February 15, 2000.
* [https://www.jstor.org/stable/2694060 "Skeleton from Kennewick, Washington."] ''American Antiquity'', {{abbr|vol.|volume}} 65, no. 2. (Apr. 2000), pp.&nbsp;291–316. May 11, 2007.
{{Refend}}

==Further reading==
{{Refbegin}}
* Adler, Jerry. [http://www.newsweek.com/9-000-year-old-secret-121649?piano_t=1 "A 9,000-Year-Old Secret."] New York: ''Newsweek''. July 25, 2005. Vol. 146, issue 4; p.&nbsp;52. {{subscription required}}
* Benedict, Jeff. ''No bone unturned: Inside the world of a top forensic scientist and his work on America's most notorious crimes and disasters''. New York: HarperCollinsPublishers, 2003. {{ISBN|006095888X}}.
* Carrillo, Jo (ed.). ''Readings in American Indian Law: Recalling the Rhythm of Survival''.  Philadelphia: Temple University Press. 1998.{{ISBN?}}
* Dewar, Elaine. ''Bones, Discovering the First Americans''. New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers, 2002, {{ISBN|0786709790}}.
* Downey, Roger. ''Riddle of the Bones: Politics, Science, Race, and the Story of Kennewick Man''. New York: Springer, 2000. {{ISBN|978-0387988771}}.
* Gear, Kathleen O'Neal, and Gear, Michael W. ''People of the Raven''. New York: TOR Books, 2004, {{ISBN|0765347571}}.
* Jones, Peter N. ''Respect for the Ancestors: American Indian Cultural Affiliation in the American West''. Boulder: Bauu Press, 2005. {{ISBN|0972134921}}.
* Raff, Jennifer. ''Origin:  A Genetic History of the Americas''. Twelve (2022). {{ISBN|978-1538749715}}.
* Redman, Samuel J. ''Bone Rooms: From Scientific Racism to Human Prehistory in Museums''. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2016. {{ISBN|978-0674660410}}.
* [[David Hurst Thomas|Thomas, David Hurst]]. [https://archive.org/details/skullwarskennewi00thom ''Skull Wars: Kennewick Man, Archaeology, and the Battle for Native American Identity'']. New York: Basic Books, 2000. {{ISBN|0465092241}}.
{{Refend}}

==External links==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110403085637/http://www.washington.edu/burkemuseum/kman/ Kennewick Man], at [[Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture]].
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20120616063221/http://www.mnh.si.edu/arctic/html/kennewick_man.html Forensic observations], by James C. Chatters, 2004.
* [https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/scientists-mysterious-kennewick-man-looked-polynesian-and-came-from-far-away/2014/08/25/45411b2a-27b3-11e4-86ca-6f03cbd15c1a_story.html "Scientists: Mysterious Kennewick Man looked Polynesian and came from far away"]. By [[Joel Achenbach]]. ''[[The Washington Post|Washington Post]]'', August 25, 2014
* [http://www.friendsofpast.org Kennewick Man Case] • from Friends of America's Past&nbsp;– events, press releases, court documents.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070820092634if_/http://www.nps.gov/archeology/kennewick/index.htm Kennewick Man], [[National Park Service]], US, 2004 (all text and images from this site are in the public domain).
* {{cite web|url=http://www.umatilla.nsn.us/ancient.html |title=The Umatilla Tribe's official position |access-date=2005-03-11 |url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130312163359/http://www.umatilla.nsn.us/ancient.html |archive-date=2013-03-12 }} .
* [http://www.mnh.si.edu/kennewickman/index.html "NMNH Scientist Studies Kennewick Man"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100610194517/http://www.mnh.si.edu/kennewickman/index.html |date=June 10, 2010 }} – The scientific team assembled to study the Kennewick Man skeletal finished the second phase of research. [[Douglas W. Owsley]], Smithsonian anthropologist, presented findings in 2006 in Seattle. Smithsonian Institution Web site.
* [https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/first/ ''NOVA Study Guide''] 2000. Four segments:
** "Does Race Exist?" Anthropologists [[George W. Gill|George Gill]] of the [[University of Wyoming]] and [[Loring Brace]] of the [[University of Michigan]] debated.
** "Meet Kennewick Man ([[QuickTime VR|QTVR]])." Archeologist Chatters spoke of working with the remains.
** [https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/first/claim.html "Claims for the Remains"]: [[Robson Bonnichsen]]; Loring Brace; George Gill, [[Vance Haynes]], [[Richard Jantz]], Douglas Owsley, [[Dennis Stanford]], Gentry Steele spoke about suit against the U.S. government.
** "The Dating Game (Hot Science)." Application of [[carbon-14]] analysis.

{{Indigenous peoples of the Americas}}
{{Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast}}
{{Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest}}
{{Pre-Columbian}}
{{Pre-Columbian North America}}

{{Coord|46|13|23|N|119|8|36|W|type:event|display=title}}

{{Indigenous peoples in Washington}}

[[Category:1996 archaeological discoveries]]
[[Category:1996 controversies in the United States]]
[[Category:Archaeological sites in Washington (state)]]
[[Category:Archaic period in North America]]
[[Category:Repatriated human remains]]
[[Category:Indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest]]
[[Category:Kennewick, Washington]]
[[Category:Native American history of Washington (state)]]
[[Category:Natural history of Washington (state)]]
[[Category:Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact]]
[[Category:Year of death unknown]]
[[Category:1996 in Oregon]]
[[Category:2017 in Oregon]]
[[Category:1996 in Washington (state)]]
[[Category:2017 in Washington (state)]]
[[Category:Paleo-Indian people]]
[[Category:Archaeological discoveries in the United States]]