As I jet to Seattle to speak about science and public policy to a group of experts, I figure I’m not giving a lecture.
I’m telling a story.
The most compelling story I know is Kennewick Man.
Indian tribes have been fighting since 1996 to have the skeleton returned home.
How ironic that my talk is located at the temporary location of Kennewick Man at the University of Washington.
Scientists were keen on examining the bones to learn more about human origins.
Tribes countered the skeleton is a being; not a science project.
And legislation had been passed in 1990 to guarantee the return of artifacts and human remains to tribes.
But in the Kennewick Man case the judge favored the scientists, and the skeleton remains closeted in Seattle.
Indian perspectives on the case continue to be ignored.
One of the scientists studying the bones was described recently as “instrumental in advocating for the right of scientists” to study artifacts that “without his intervention…would more than likely have been lost to science.”
But what about rights of the tribes?
9 November blog for National Native American Heritage Month
Photo of the Burke Museum in Seattle where Kennewick Man remains