Murder was the first explanation for a set of bones found along the Columbia River in 1996. But the skeleton, now known as Kennewick Man, turned out to be as much as 9,300 hundred years old. Since the discovery, Kennewick Man has been upsetting conventional scientific wisdom about the habits and identity of the first inhabitants of America. He has also sparked a legal, and philosophical controversy over the question of who owns the past — is it the scientist who wants to study it, on the Native American who claims Kennewick Man as her ancestor?
Guests:
Francis McManomon, Chief Archeologist of the National Park Service Archeology and Ethnography Program
Robson Bonnichsen, Director of the Center for the Study of the First Americans at Texas A&M University
Vincas Steponaitis, Professor of Anthropology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill