We have previously discussed the controversy over Kennewick man, the 9,000 year old skeleton found along the bank of the Columbia River eighteen years ago. Putting aside the fact that the date of the skeleton once again contradicts those who believe that the Earth is only a few thousand years old, it also represented a major scientific find. Scientists stated that the skeleton did not appear to be Native American, but Native American groups insisted that under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) they had a right to take possession of the skeleton and stop any further scientific work at the site. To the astonishment of many (particularly in the academic world), Army Corps of Engineers sided with the tribe and fought to give the non-Native American skeleton to the local tribe and dumped 2 million pounds of dirt and planted several thousand trees on top of Kennewick Man’s burial site to stop further scientific work. Now, the results are in. Kennewick Man is not Native American but the Corps is continuing to defend its absurd position and its obstruction of important scientific work.
Forensic anthropologist Doug Owsley of the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History believe that KM was an immigrant who traveled in boats from Polynesia, along the coasts of Japan, Russia, Alaska, Canada and eventually up the Columbia River. There may be more evidence in the area but the Corps has succeeded in destroying what could be unique evidence of the earliest groups in North America. It is the triumph of thoughtless bureaucrats over science.
Scientists had to take the Corps to court and the Corps was criticized by U.S. Magistrate Judge John Jelderks of having “prejudged the outcome” to side with Indian tribes. The Corps and the tribes were proven wrong. However, the Corps is still saying that it acted correctly. Bizarrely, the Corps says that it does not matter if this is not a Native American gravesite under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. Jennifer Richman of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers stated “We are very sensitive to the facts the tribes view the remains as being very significant. The tribes view the remains as their ancestor.” That is quite a subjective standard. It would turn the Act into de facto ownership of any skeleton and accompanying artifacts found in such areas. The tribe was wrong. Its “view” of the KM being an ancestor is baseless. Yet, the Corps would reject all science and logic in barring scientists from working on such critical sites.
Kennewick Man is currently being kept away from the public in Seattle’s Burke Museum — safe from the hands of the U.S. Corps of Engineers.
Source: Smithsonian
Humm. Why examine facts when you can simply define everyone who disagrees with you as leftist?
“McCain is a suddenly a liberal because he disagrees with me.”
“Hitler was a leftist.”
“I consider these facts to be progressive regardless of who advocates them.”
Reality is not so malleable as is your biases. You guys are more interested in keeping score on imaginary game cards than you are in objectively examining facts.
Larche – Hitler was a leftist, he was a socialist. McCain is a RINO and was the darling of the liberal press until he decide to run for President. Then they turned on him
Stereotyping people and things is how we survive in the world. Don’t knock it.
“Good grief, would it kill conservatives to actually examine the facts behind a story before they reflexively blame liberals?”
Physician, heal thyself.
Larche, the core of this issue is giving certain groups of people “more equal rights” than others. That is the left.
Justice, Come on! Universities are controlled by the left and that is the Pentagon fort the First Amendment blitzkrieg.
“Since when is John McCain a conservative?”
well, the corps has been almost entirely useless at best and damaging at worst in its ” non-work” on Asian carp, invasive species in the Great Lakes/ Mississippi watersheds.
” As to whether Obama is a liberal, he’s not. He is a corporatist.”
Leftist in-fighting is hilarious and predictable.
All of its processes end up in authoritarianism and then they blame some leftist faction for it by calling it the right.
See the Soviets vs. National Socialism for the template.
“Never mind the fact that the Corps of Engineers has been fighting this battle for over ten years”
Leftism has been in the US since the 1870s.
It’s dominated the US bureaucracy since the 1970s.
Since is John McCain a conservative? Because he identifies as a Republican?
Just because a cat has her kittens in the oven don’t make them biscuits.
This is standard PC claptrap, a liberal invention.
The notoriously liberal Ninth Circuit is also notoriously erratic.
Part of the stopped clock/blind squirrel effect.
It is a government agency. There is the right way, the wrong way, and the government way — Guaranteed to make matters worse.
Nick, Many Conservatives aren’t so hot on free speech either. As to whether Obama is a liberal, he’s not. He is a corporatist.
“…triumph of thoughtless bureaucrat…”
This was not thoughtless.
This was a calculated effort by bureaucrats to support an established agenda.
I see we are already preemptively blaming progressives for this foolishness. Never mind the fact that the Corps of Engineers has been fighting this battle for over ten years, disregard the fact that the notoriously liberal Ninth Circuit has ruled for the researchers, ignore that fact that John McCain himself proposed legislation which — if enacted — would have changed the legal definition of Native American to encompass these remains.
Good grief, would it kill conservatives to actually examine the facts behind a story before they reflexively blame liberals?
I think the Army Corp of Engineers should be disbanded. They have screwed up every major project they have been on for the last 50 years or more.
Justice, “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” The left used to worship Orwell, now they have become Orwell’s worst nightmare. They are the purveyors of PC, university speech codes, and we now have a President who supports blasphemy laws. When I was a bleeding heart liberal in the 60/70’s liberals were the champions of free speech. They took over and did a 180. It’s been a rough several decades for the First Amendment.
Man perishes because he fails to join the beginning with the past.
Pre Socratic Fragment
No “tribe” or religion should be permitted to trump rational reasonable scientific study. The problem with giving people special privileges based on their race, tribe or religion is that they then use those privileges against the rights of others and to stop them from exercising their rights.
The government will politicize even the hard sciences.
Minneapolis MN has done this in demanding that public schools set racial quotas on discipline.
I expect this same PC nonsense is how Sharia law will become common in the US.
And it can safely be predicted that Obamacare will be a morass of politicized garbage. They’ll fund sex changes but not hospice, that kind of idiocy.
Let’s face it, there are plenty of foolish folk out there. It seems that what the Corps is arguing is that the scientific fact does not matter rather it is the ‘plain language’ of the statute. So any burial site which is not for a European carbon-based dude is that of a ‘native.’ Do they think this will appeal to the Scalia-Thomas-Alito wing use the law’s words to make the law an absurdity???? Scientifically what this does prove is that there are no “natives” in the Americas, every body got here from some place else!
Progressives claim to be on the side of science but in reality they are on the side of emotion. They only favor science when it suits their cause
Feminism tried to trump biology and claimed there was no difference between boys and girls, all differences were male dominated culturally based. Now, PC is trumping anthropology.