What does the word “ancestor” mean when the time scales involved are geological rather than genealogical?

These questions are not abstract.

They are being answered — or not answered — right now, in decisions about which remains get repatriated and which stay in museum storage, in decisions about which archaeological sites get protected and which get paved over for development, in decisions about how Indigenous oral traditions are treated by researchers and courts and government agencies.

The DNA revolution that transformed our understanding of Kennewick Man’s ancestry is ongoing.

Ancient DNA studies are being conducted across the Americas, producing results that are steadily deepening and complicating our understanding of how the continent was peopled.

Each new study adds data points, resolves some questions, and opens others.

And each new study has the potential to intersect with the interests of living communities — to confirm or challenge claims about ancestry, to support or complicate repatriation arguments, to illuminate or obscure the relationship between ancient populations and their modern descendants.

The tribes of the Columbia Plateau are not waiting passively for outside institutions to tell them their own history.

They are actively engaged in the research, in the legal processes, in the public narrative about who their people are and where they come from.

The Umatilla, through the Tamástslikt Cultural Institute, have developed educational programs that bring their history — including the Kennewick Man story — to schools and communities across the region.