02/21/2017 Class Notes and Discovery of the Kennewick Man

•  Hitler's phone was bought at auction for $243,000, Siemens Bakelite phone, painted red engraved with eagle,Hitler's name and a swastika "mobile device of destruction" sent millions to their deaths around the world. Inherited by British officer Ralph Rayner. The Russians liked that Ralph's favorite color was red. Rayner recovered a porcelain Alsatian from Hitler's bunker made by slave laborers at Dachau concentration camp. Sold for $24,300
•  
• forensic archaeologist investigated
• not a recent case
• initially thought he was a 19th century/20th century settler
• found a spearpoint in the hip
• skeleton was over 9,000 years old
• a scientific treasure
• 5'8" was tall for a hunter gatherer, 40-50 years old
• there's a lot of symmetry to his body despite many wounds
• U.S. Corp of Engineers turned over body to Indians, 7 scientific colleagues filed suit to have the body returned to study
• the tribes fear their status as separate nations could be revoked?
• judge ordered moratorium on skeleton (vault)
• the Army Corp of Engineers decided to cover up site where Kennewick Man was found 
• the Army Corp sent in trucks and helicopters ($175,000) to cover up an area archaeologists view as extremely important

Who has the right to

• Access it?
• Loot it?
• Consume it?
• Practice it?
• Control it?
• Sell it?

 Community

• Direct Descendants
• Indirect Descendants
• Community Leaders

Others

• Scholars/Researchers
• Preservation/Archaeology
• Private companies 

• 8,000/9,000 year old bones. If there is a distinct belief in a community-to do anything else besides burying the bones goes completely against the belief  

Scientists

• it is a relic that needs to be examined to credit or discredit the belief system  

Case Study

• You bought a piece of land. While digging up the yard to build a garden and you find bones and a skeleton.
• 150 year old (+) bones

 A community that is rooted in a long history of traditions and practices for life and death. If a community has all of those traditions, are those equally or less or more important than scientific inquiry? 

• rice terraces, cultural landscape
• does the Philippines have the right to tell people to live in the same way?

 Scientist/Archaeologist, Preservation "the other" "the outside":

•  separation of church and state?
• it has already been uncovered, what is the harm in delaying the reburial? 
• these discoveries would give more information about American history?
• Kennewick man: knew it was important after coming across the skeleton
• more discovery about that part of the past
•  appreciation of history, other cultures and the past
• do not plant trees-roots would destroy context, safe from environmental damage, slowly pile on dirt, weave sandbags in, depends on what structures you are reburying. Some foundation needs to stay where it is 
• When you are done, pour the backfill back in  
• It can be proved, or not proved 
• relic can be remains, building, object

Native American:

• even if I allowed you to do testing, that testing is desecration of my ancestor
• violates the beliefs of what I feel should happen to my ancestors
• there are other contexts from the site you could glean without genetic testing 
• legally it's my decision  
• the impact on modern populations would be negligible; it hurts me more than it helps you
• respecting belief is not asking you to adopt a belief 
• faith/religion
• rebury without any scientific inquiry of any kind 
• belief has been passed on from generation to generation, my community
• rooted in several thousand years of tradition

 Legal Precedents

• must be older than 50 years old to be examined
• Contact the authority and local Native American groups
• Occasionally they let people do testing
• Kennewick wasn't buried immediately