HIST348: Peoples of Kansas

If you were particularly interested in our discussion last week about early human migration onto the North American continent, check out this article by an archaeologist at the University of Washington. In 1996, two men discovered a human skull in the Columbia River near Kennewick, Washington. They promptly contacted the local authorities, who in turn referred the case to archaeologist James Chatters (author of the article). These remains, dubbed “Kennewick Man,” have the potential to radically change archaeologists’ understanding of the peopling the Americas, since they are dated to the Paleoindian period but have unusual (Caucasoid) characteristics. Here is an excerpt from the article:

The completeness and unusually good condition of the skeleton, presence of caucasoid traits, lack of definitive Native-American characteristics, and the association with an early homestead led me to suspect that the bones represented a European settler. I first began to question this when I detected a gray object partially healed within the right ilium. CT scans revealed the 20 by 54 mm base of a leaf-shaped, serrated Cascade projectile point typical of Southern Plateau assemblages from 8500 B.P. to 4500 B.P. However, similar styles were in use elsewhere in western North America and Australia into the nineteenth century. Nevertheless, the point raised the possibility of great antiquity, while the skeleton’s traits argued for the early nineteenth century. We either had an ancient individual with physical characteristics unlike later native peoples’ or a trapper/explorer who’d had difficulties with “stone-age” peoples during his travels….*

Most of the skeleton and teeth were recovered intact. Analysis of a fragment of one of the finger bones dated the remains to about 7300 to 7600 B.C. Unfortunately, Chatters’ work ended prematurely, for the reasons that he states in the article. If you are interested in reading more, here are some resources dealing with the discovery: Kennewick Man Virtual Interpretive Center, National Parks Service Archaeology Program, and Kennewick Man and the New World Entrada.

* James Chatters, “Kennewick Man,” Northern Clans, Northern Traces, http://www.mnh.si.edu/arctic/html/kennewick_man.html (accessed May 25, 2008).