The legal and ethical dispute lasted for years and was eventually resolved through legislation and subsequent DNA analysis that supported a connection to contemporary Native American populations and led to repatriation.

The Kennewick Man case illustrates a central tension in how ancient DNA research has related to Indigenous communities: the scientific value of studying ancient remains is real, but so is the harm done when that value is used to override the wishes of descendant communities, when scientific frameworks are used to adjudicate questions that communities have the right to answer for themselves, and when the results of genetic studies are used to challenge or displace Indigenous accounts of their own history and ancestry.

Eske Willerslev’s research record includes engagement with these tensions.

His work has generated important scientific findings about early human populations in the Americas, and he has also been involved in ongoing discussions about the appropriate ethical frameworks for ancient DNA research involving Indigenous peoples.