Battle For Kennewick Man Over?

A collection of 380 bones and bone fragments discovered on July 31, 1996, in Kennewick, Washington has been focus of an intense legal battle for nearly a decade. Scientists want to study the bones to learn more about what early Americans were like, but Native tribes claim the bones as an ancestor and insist on a proper burial without any tests being done.

As the Oregonian explains, though, this battle may finally be over because the tribes have exhausted most of their legal options and don’t want to appeal up to the Supreme Court:

Four Northwest tribes seeking to bury the 9,300-year-old bones indicate they will not take their fight to the U.S. Supreme Court after losing in lower federal courts to scientists who want to study the remains. The bones now await a formal study plan by the scientists. The U.S. Justice Department, which early on had sided with the tribes, declined Thursday to say whether it would file its own appeal to the nation's highest court by a Monday deadline. But Rob Roy Smith, a Seattle attorney representing the Colville Tribes, said he assumes the federal agency also won't continue with the case.

"Even though the tribes strongly disagree with the 9th Circuit's ruling, the tribes have decided not to seek a writ of certiorari from the U.S. Supreme Court," [Rob Roy Smith, a Seattle attorney representing the Colville Tribes] said. "Appeals to the Supreme Court are expensive, and there is no guarantee that the court would even take the case," said Smith, who argued the tribes' case before the 9th Circuit. "The tribes believe that this is a very important case, and there's always the fear that this bad (appeals court) decision can be made the law of the land by the Supreme Court, and that's not a risk the tribes are willing to take."

The 1990 federal law, which has been at the center of the dispute, requires tribes to show they have a cultural affiliation with any discovered remains. Both court decisions said the tribes did not adequately show that link to Kennewick Man. "Despite the rulings, the tribes still believe that these remains are of an ancestor and they want to make sure the remains are treated in the most respectable manner possible," Smith said. "And if and when these studies do take place, they want the remains to be returned for reburial."

When should a group’s religious beliefs take precedence over scientific study? Assuming that scientists can learn a lot from the bones, is that knowledge worth less than the religious beliefs of Native American tribes or vice-versa? It’s difficult to argue what has more “value” because value is a function of personal preferences. Context, however, is important here: government-funded work being done on government land should not be subsumed to the religious beliefs of a group living somewhere else.

Christian fundamentalists may disagree with evolution and the government can’t force evolution on them, but that doesn’t mean that they can refuse to pay taxes that might fund the teaching or research of evolution. Native American tribes may not like research done on bones from thousands of years ago, but while scientists cannot come on their land to dig up random bodies, they also shouldn’t be have to refrain from studying bones found on other land.

The government can show respect for the tribes’ different values without also adopting them at the same time. Respect means not barging into their homes and rearranging things to suit the government; not adopting them means not rearranging the government’s house to suit the tribes‘ wishes.

Read More:

• Separation of Church and State 101
• Church and State News
• Secularism 101